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ARE THI-] INDIANS DYING OUT? 



^ PRELIMLNARY OBSERVATIONS 

KET.ATIXG TO 

XDIAX CIYILIZATION AND EDUCATION. 

# * 

The within notes and correspondence are submitted for your examination 
in the hope that yon, and others to whose attention they may be called, may 
aid in obtaining and communicating further data necessary to a correct con- 
clusion regarding the question of increase or decrease of Indian population 
as dependent on civilization. 
Please address : JOHN EATON, 

Ecpresentative of the Department of the Interior, 

at the International Exhil)ilion of 1876. 



Washington, November 24, 1877. 



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C O E E B S P O N D E N G E . 



The subject to wliicb the following correspondence has reference is 
comiug up in so many forms that this brief preliminary resume is put in 
type as a means (1) of giving some of the facts known at the present; 
stage of the inquiry, and (2) of affording an opportunity to submit them 
for the opinion and suggestions of numerous persons interested in the 
subject. 



Department of the Interior, 

Office of Indian Affairs, 
Washington, November 13, 1877. 
Sir : I understand that as representative of the Department of the 
Interior at the International Exhibition of 1876 you were able to collect 
much valuable information relative to the Indians, including that of 
their enumeration at various dates. 

If you have the data, I will esteem it a favor if you will furnish me 
with such enumeration at the various decades from 1790 to the present 
time. 

This information is just now needed for official purposes, and if re- 
ceived will save the time and trouble of my clerks, and thus aid in the 
dispatch of public business. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

E. A. HAYT, 

Commissioner. 

Hon. John Eaton, 

Commissioner of Education^ 

Representative of the Department of the Interior 

at the International Exhibition of 1876. 



Department of the Interior, 

Bureau of Education, 
Washington, D. C, November 14, 1877. 
Sir : I have the honor hereby to acknowledge the receipt of your let- 
ter dated the 13th instant, requesting, in order to aid in the dispatch of 
public business, and save your clerks the time and trouble of repeating 
an investigation already made elsewhere, that you be furnished with 
information respecting the number of Indians "at the various decades 



4 



from 1790 to the present time,'^ as it appears in the historical view of 
Indian administration prepared in connection with the Centennial Ex- 
hibition. 

In reply I have the honor to state that in preparing this outline of 
history as required in connection with the catalogue and description of 
the exhibition, it was not originally intended to consider especially the 
question of numbers at different dates j but points in reference to enu- 
meration were so constantly thrusting themselves into the narrative 
that any attempt at accuracy would not permit the omission, and there- 
fore compelled a somewhat critical examination of the various estimates 
and enumerations of the Indians. The mass of matter brought into 
view is too great to be summed up at the moment in answer to your 
inquiry, but I beg to submit the following outline, which is as nearly 

accurate as can be made at this date, by Maj. S. 'N. Clark, the gentleman 

specially charged with the investigation : 

ESTIMATES OF THE INDIAN POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES. 

In considering the following statement of Indian population at differ- 
ent periods from 1790 to 1876 several things should be remembered and 
heeded : 

1. It is entirely impracticable to present any trustworthy statement 
of the number of Indians in the whole territory comprised within the 
present limits of the United States in 1790, or at any subsequent period 
down to about the year 1850.* All enumerations and estimates prior to 
the latter date were based on fragmentary and otherwise insufficient 
data. Our official intercourse with the Indian tribes at the beginning 
of this century did not extend much beyond the Ohio Biver and the 
Mississippi, from its confluence with the Ohio to the Gulf of Mexico ; 
and our information respecting the number of Indian tribes beyond, and 
their numerical strength, was extremely meagre and indefinite. The 
number of Indian tribes in official relations with the United States 
steadily increased from 1778, the date of our first Indian treaty, to within 
a few years. 

2. Such estimates and enumerations as have been presented do not 
coincide, (except in two instances, 1820 and 1870,) in date, with the 
years in which the regular census of the United States was taken ; nor 
do they appear at regular intervals. 

3. It is almost invariably true that estimates of the numbers of an 
Indian tribe exceed the real numbers ; and, from the nature of the case, 
all official enumerations, until within a very recent period, have neces- 
sarily included many estimates, and are, for that reason, inaccurate. 

4. The United States census returns before 1850 did not include In- 
dians. 



* This remark is almost equally true of estimates and ennmeratious from 1850 to the 
present time. 



5 



ESTIMATE OF SECRETARY OF WAR, 1789. 

General Knox, Secretar3' of War, in a report to the President, dated 
June 15, 1789, estimates the entire number of Indians in the United 
States at that time at 7G,000. He does not specify the several tribes. 

ESTIMATES OF INDIAN POrULATION IN 1791. 

Imlay,in his Topographical Description of the Western Territory, pub- 
lished ill London in 1797, after a comparison of the published state- 
ments of Oroghan, Bouquet, Carver, Hutchins, and Dodge, and the ac- 
counts of others familiar with the Indians, estimates the number of In- 
dians who inhabit the country from the Gulf of Mexico on both sides 
of the Mississippi to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and as far west as the 
country has been explored, that is, to the headwaters of the Missis- 
sippi, and from thence to the Missouri, (I do not mean the head of it,) 
and between that river and Santa Fe," at ''less than 60,000." 

morse's ESTIMATE, 1820-'21. 

The first attempt at an official enumeration of the entire Indian popu- 
lation was made by Jedidiah Morse, appointed by the Secretary of War 
in 1819, to investigate and report on the condition of the Indian tribes. 
His report, dated June 6, 1822, is a valuable contribution to our Indian 
history, but it must be remembered that his conclusions respecting 
population are, to a great extent, drawn from estimates which in many 
cases were themselves based on very insufficient information. His table 



is as follows : 

Indians in New England ...... 2, 247 

Indians in New York , 5, 184 

Indians in Ohio 2, 407 

Indians in Michigan and Northwestern Territories 28, 380 

Indians in Illinois and Indiana , 17, 006 

Indians in Southern States east of the Mississippi 65, 022 

Indians west of Mississippi and north of Missouri 33, 150 

Indians between Missouri and Eed Elvers 101, 070 

Indians west of the Eocky Mountains 171, 200 

Indians between Eed Eiver and Eio del Norte 45, 370 



Total = 471,036 



ESTIMATE OF 1825. 

This estimate was contained in a report by T. L. McKenney, then at 
the head of the Indian Office in the Department of War, to the Secre- 
tary of that department, dated January 10, 1825. It did not include 
any estimate of the number of Indians in or west of the Missouri Val- 
ley, and was therefore very incomplete. It is included in this statement 
only because it was reproduced in the report of the United States cen- 
sus for 1850. 

The number of Indians in the United States in 1825, according to this 
partial estimate, was 129,366. 



6 



ESTIMATE OF SECRETARY OF WAR, 1829. 

In 1829, Hon. P. B. Porter, Secretary of War, estimated the number 
of Indians, and noted their geographical distribution as follows : 



i^ew England States and Virginia 2, 573 

Kew York 4, 820 

Pennsylvania 300 

North Carolina 3, 103 

South Carolina 300 

Georgia 5,000 

Tennessee, Obio, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Indiana, 

Illinois, and Missouri 61, 997 

Peniosula of Michigan 9, 340 

Arkansas 7, 200 

Florida ... 4, 000 

Country east of the Mississippi, north of Illinois, and west of 

the three upper lakes 20, 000 

West of the Mississippi, east of the Eocky Mountains, not in- 
cluded in Louisiana, Missouri, and Arkansas 94, 300 

Within the Eocky Mountains 20, 000 

West of the Eocky Mountains, between latitude 44^ and lati- 
tude 490 80,000 



Total , 312,930 



The above enumeration was also largely made up of estimates, some 
of which the Secretary himself styled ''conjectural 5" and of other In- 
dians, he remarks, "but little is known." Of course this estimate, like 
all others in this century dated before 1850, did not include any official 
enumeration of. the Indians in Texas and the territory acquired from 
Mexico. 

ESTIMATE OF 1834. 

In 1834, the number of Indians in the United States, according to an 
estimate of General Cass, Secretary of the Department of War, was as 



follows : 

Tribes with whom we have treaties, (30) 156, 310 

Tribes with whom we have no treaties, (49) 156, 300 

Total , 312, 610 



This statement did not include any of the tribes north of Virginia 
and east of Ohio. 

ESTIMATE OF 1836. 

In a report of C. A. Harris, superintendent of Indian affairs, to Hon. 
B. F. Butler, Secretary of the Department of War ad interim^ dated 
December 1, 1836, at a time when the question of the removal of the 
Indian tribes to the territory west of the Mississippi was being consid- 
ered, is found the following estimate of the Indian population : 



Indians east of the Mississippi 57, 433 

Indians who have been removed » 45, 690 

Indians west of the Mississippi, (indigenous tribes) 150, 341 



Total , 253,464 



7 



This estimate did not include the Indians in the territory of the Uni- 
ted States west of the Kocky Mountains, nor, of course, those of Texas, 
New Mexico, Arizona, and California. 

ESTIMATE OF 1837. 

Schoolcraft, in his History of the Indian Tribes, reproduces an esti- 
mate of the number of the Indians in 1837, made up, he states, from 
official reports to the Indian Office, which is as follows : 

Indians east of the Mississippi 49, 365 

Emigrants > 51,327 

Indigenous tribes west of the Mississippi 201, 806 

Total 302. 498 



ENUMERATION OF 1850. 



In introducing the census of 1850, some general remarks are neces- 
sary. 

The first section of the Indian appropriation law, approved June 27, 
1846, contained the following provision : And it shall be the duty of 
the different agents and subagents t'o take a census, and to obtain such 
other statistical information of the several tribes of Indians among 
whom they respectively reside, as may t)e required by the Secretary of 
War, and in such form as he shall prescribe." 

This was the first general legislation on the subject, though the G-ov- 
ernment had, from the time of its foundation in 1789, maintained offi- 
cial relations with the Indian tribes that could not be well understood 
nor administered without definite information respecting their numbers 
and condition. In 1847, a partial census, embracing the Indians in. 
twelve agencies and subagencies, was reported. It enumerated about 
35,000 Indians. The legislation of 1846 was deemed inadequate by those 
most interested in the welfare of the Indians, and in November, 1846, a 
memorial, signed by numerous well-known and influential gentlemen, 
was presented to Congress. To this and other efforts may be attributed 
the fifth section of the act approved March 3, 1847, for "a better organi- 
zation of the Office of Indian Affairs," and to amend the " trade and in- 
tercourse " act. The section reads as follows : 

Sec. 5. And he it further enacted^ That in aid of the means now pos- 
sessed by the Department of Indian Affairs through its existing organ- 
ization there be, and hereby is, appropriated the sum of five thousand 
dollars, to enable the said department, under the direction of the Sec- 
retary of War, to collect and digest such statistics and materials as may 
Illustrate the history, the present condition, and future prospects of the 
Indian tribes of the United States. 

On the transfer of the Indian Office to the newly created Department 
of the Interior, under the act of March 3, 1849, the work of collecting 
statistics was continued j and under the direction of Henry R. School- 



8 



craft, who had been appoiated for that purpose in accordance with the 
act of March 3, 1847, an elaborate census of the Indians, embracing one 
hundred and seventy-two different points of inquiry, was undertaken, at 
great expense, the whole amount, including the expense of collecting 
and digesting historical as well as statistical material, approaching tbe 
sum of $130,000. 

The census in detail, as projected by Mr. Schoolcraft, does not appear 
to have been completed, or, if so, to have been published. A partial 
census, however, on the elaborate plan adopted will be found in his 
History of the Indian Tribes of the United States, published under the 
direction of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. In the first volume of 
the above work, page 523, appears ^n "ultimate, consolidated table" of 
the Indian population of the United States, dated July 22, 1850. Much 
of the material for this table was undoubtedly based on estimates and 
not on actual enumerations. It is impossible to give even the date of 
each estimate, Mr. Schoolcraft having contented himself with quoting 
the " latest authorities," without generally giving names or dates. Thus 
the Indian population of California is given in the table at 32,231, on 
the authority of the Spanish missionaries, but their enumeration did not 
extend to Indians beyond the missionary establishments, and the above 
number is made up of about one-half mission Indians and one-half wild 
or mountain Indians, the latter number being apparently based on a 
purely conjectural estimate. Moreover, the number at two of the mis- 
sions is given for the year 1802, forty-eight years before the date of Mr. 



Schoolcraft's table. 
The table in brief is as follows : 

Iroquois group, comi)lete , 5, 922 

Algonkin group, incomplete 17,197 

Dakota group, incomplete 6, 570 

Appalachian grouj), incomplete „ » 5, OJ 5 



Total of which a detailed enumeration has been made.. 31, 701 

Tribes of tbe new States and Territories south and west, now 

including Texas and Mexican acquisitions 183, 042 

East of the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi, in high north- 
ern latitudes . . » 167, 330 

Fragmentary tribes in the older States ^ 3, 153 



Total 388, 229 



The following note is appended to the table : 

There may be, in addition to these numbers, 25,000 to 35,000 Indians 
within the area of the unexplored territories of the United States. 

THE UNITED STATES CENSUS OF lB50. 

On page xciv of the report of the United States census for 1850 
appears a table of Indian population. It includes a statement by the 
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, dated November 10, 1853, of the number 



9 



of IndiaDS in tbe Uuited States at that time. The aggregate, according 
to this statement, was 400,764 j but this does not profess to be accurate, 
for the number of Indians in the States of California and Texas, the 
Territories of Oregon, Washington, Utah, and New Mexico, and those 
belonging to the Blackfeet, Sioux, Kiowa, Comanche, Pawnee, "and 
other tribes," numbering, according to the table, 271,930, are, confess- 
edly ''estimated." Thus, while Schoolcraft, in the table dated Jul^^, 
1850, before quoted, reports the California Indians at 32,231, this state- 
ment, three years later, "estimates" their number at 100,000. 

ESTIMATE OF 1855. 

The report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1855, pp. 575, 576, 
reports the number of Indians in the United States, "made up from the 
best data in the possession of the Indian Office," at 314,622. 

The following note is appended to this table : 

Possibly some of the tribes embraced in this statement, especially 
those inhabiting the mountainous regions and the plains, are not cor- 
rectly reported; their number may exceed, or fall short of, the estimates 
here made of them. The Indian population within the limits of the 
United States territory, exclusive of a few in several of the States, 
who have lost their tribal character or amalgamated with whites or 
blacks, may be estimated at from 320,000 to 350,000. 

ESTIMATE OE 1857. 

In volume YI, pp. 686, 689, of Schoolcraft's History of the Indian 
Tribes, is presented a table of the Indian population of the United States, 
deduced from the yearly reports of the preceding decade. The total, 
according to this table, is 313,264. Appended to the table is the fol- 
lowing note : 

To this result may be added for tribes who are not reported by the 
agents who have been solicited for desiderata, or who have vaguely 
reported, and for tribes who occupy unexplored parts of the interior of 
Texas, 'New Mexico, California, Oregon, Washington, ISTebraska, and 
Kansas, 66,000. 

Adding this to the footing of the table, we have an aggregate of 379,264. 
But it is still to be remembered that these figures are largely based on 
conjectures and estimates. 

ENUMERATION OF 1860. 

In the report for the year 1861, the Indian Office published the first 
tabular "statement indicating the schools, population, and wealth of the 
different Indian tribes which are in direct connection with the Govern- 
ment of the United T'^tes." 

A similar report has been published each year since, and these reports 
have yearly increased in completeness and value, especially since 1870. 

The report for the year 1861 may be taken as representing substan- 
:tially the year 1860. The numbers of Indians belonging to tribes from 



10 



which the outbreak of civil war prevented any report for 1861, are given 
'as reported the preceding year. 

The total number of Indians, according to this report, was 249,965. 
According to the report of the United States census for 1860, there were 
44,020 '^civilized Indians" in the United States. Deducting from this 
number 39,685, apparently included in the statement of the Indian OfiBce, 
there remain 4,335 to be added to 249,965, making an aggregate of 
254,300. 

ENUMERATION OF 1865. 

The report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the year 1865 
states the population of the Indian tribes within the United States at 
294,574. The report for the next year, when the disturbances of the war 
had, ceased, showed 295,774; a slight increase. 

ENUMERATION OF 1870. 

The first attempt to embrace a general enumeration of the Indian 
population in the United States census was made by Gen. F. A. Walker, 
superintendent of the ninth ceusus. On page xvi of the volume on 
Population and Social Statistics, will be found the excellent reasons 
given by General Walker for making this attempt. In the same place 
he says : 

With a view, therefore, to reaching the true population of the country 
as nearly as is practicable in the absence of distinct authority for the 
appointment of assistant marshals to enumerate the several tribes 
and bands of Indians, inquiries were conducted extensively through 
the agents of the Indian Oj&ce during the year 1870, the result of which, 
it is believed, has been to secure a closer approximation to the true num- 
bers of this class of the population than has ever before been effected. 

A detailed statement of the result, by States and Territories, includ- 
ing Alaska, will be found on page xvii of the volume before quoted. In 



brief, it is as follows : 

Sustaining tribal relations, (enumerated) 96, 366 

Sustaining tribal relations, (estimated) 26, 875 

Sustaining tribal relations, nomadic, (estimated) 234, 740 

Out of tribal relations, (enumerated) 25, 731 



Total , 383,712 



It will be seen at once that, notwithstanding all the efforts made, these 
results are far from being satisfactory, and that they must be accepted 
with the greatest caution. 

Of these numbers 261,615, or more than 68 per cent., are based on 
"estimates," with all their imperfections and uncertainties. Included in 
the estimated population are 70,000* Alaska Indians, occupying a terri- 
tory never thoroughly explored. Deducting this number, which is in 
the nature of the case only conjectural, we have 313,712 as the total 
Indian population (exclusive of Alaska Indians) in 1870. 

^Excessive. 



11 



The report of ludian affairs for the same year gives the total number 
of Indians, excluding the Indians of Alaska, at 287,640. Adding to 
this 25,721 Indians "out of tribal relations," reported in the census, we 
have 313,371; a substantial agreement with the returns of the United 
States census. 

ENUMERATIONS OF 1875 AND 1876. 

The report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1875 contains a 
list of the Indian tribes and their numerical strength. The total is 
279,337. 

The report for 1876 shows but 266,151 ; but this apparent decrease of 
13,186 is easily accounted for by reference to the enumeration of the 
Dakotas; a part of these tribes being engaged in hostilities against the 
United States, and consequently not included in the census. 

In comparing the last two enumerations with the census returns of 
1870, 25,731 should be added for Indians *'out of tribal relations;" thus 
increasing the number in 1875 to 305,068, and in 1876 to 291,882. 

EE CAPITULATION. 

For convenience of reference the following summary is presented, but 
it should not be considered apart from the remarks which accompany 
each separate period : 



1. 1789.— Estimate of Secretary of War , , 76, 000. 

2. 1.90-'91.— Estimate of Gilbert Imlay 60, 000 

3. 1820.— Eeport of Morse on Indian affairs 471, 036 

4. 1825.— Eeport of Secretary of War , 129, 366 

5. 1829.— Eeport of Secretary of War 312, 930 

6. 1834.— Eeport of Secretary of War 312, 610 

7. 1836. — Eeport of Superintendent Indian Affairs ...... 253, 464 

8. 1837.— Eeport of Superintendent Indian Affairs 302, 498 

9. 1850.— Eeport of H. E. Schoolcraft 388, 229 

10. 1853.— Eeport of United States census, 1850 400, 764 

11. 1855.— Eeport of Indian OfBce 314, 622 

12. 1857.— Eeport of H. E. Schoolcraft 379, 264 

13. I860.— Eeport of Indian OfBce 254, 300 

14. 1865.— Eeport of Indian Office ., 294, 574 

15. 1870.— Eeport of United States census 313, 712 

16. 1870.— Eeport of Indian Office = 313, 371 

17. 1875.— Eeport of Indian Office 305, 068 

18. 1876.— Eeport of Indian OMce 291, 882 



Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

JOHN EATON, 

Representative JDepartment Interior at the International Exhibition, 
Hon. E. A. Hayt, 

Commissioner of Indian Affairs. 



12 



MEMOEANDA. 

IMPORTANCE OF THE INQUIRY. 

The solution of the problem of Indian civilization depends greatly on 
the conclusions reached respecting Indian population. If, as is gener- 
ally believed, the Indians are a vanishing race, doomed to disappear at 
a not remote period, because of their contact with civilization, or for 
any other reason, then the efforts in behalf of their civilization will as- 
sume, in most minds, a sentimental aspect, and will hardly be consid- 
ered in their true relation as regards their practical importance. But, 
on the contrary, if it is shown to be true that the Indians, instead of 
being doomed by circumstances to extinction within a limited period, are, 
as a rule, not decreasingin numbers, and are, in all probability, destined to 
form a permanent factor, an enduring element, of our population, the 
necessity of their civilization will be at Once recognized, and all efforts 
in that direction will be treated as their imx)ortance demands. 

REMARKS ON ESTIMATES OF INDIAN POPULATION. 

Eeference has been made in the introduction to the preceding state- 
ment of Indian population at different jieriods since 1790 to a fact not 
generally recognized, that estimates of such population almost invari- 
ably exceed the true number. This is due to a variety of causes, sev- 
eral of which may be mentioned : 

1. The estimates of the Spanish adventurers, whose explorations were 
more extensive than those of any other nation in the sixteenth century, 
were accepted and seldom questioned for a long period some of them are 
still accepted. The Spanish estimates were largely based on their pre- 
vious experience in the more densely populated countries of Mexico and 
Peru; besides, they warred with the natives, and it has never been a 
Spanish trait to underrate the numerical strength of an enemy. 

2. The lirst French explorers were largely composed of ecclesiastics 
whose imaginations were kindled by a contemplation of the heathen 
multitudes they were to win to the cross. The extravagance of many 
of their estimates has been shown, and yet they are to a considerable 
extent accepted to-day. 

3. The early English colonists formed permanent settlements. Their 
little towns were naturally seated on water-courses which were the great 
highways of Indian travel, and at points on the coast to which the In- 
dians had long resorted. They thus came in contact with a very large 
proportion, relatively, of the Indian population. They were also en- 
gaged in hostilities with the Indians, and were naturally misled as to 
the number of their foes by the ubiquity of the savages whose mode of 
warfare enabled them to strike a hamlet here to-day and another fifty 
miles away to-morrow. 



13 



4. There were other reasons more geueral wby estimates were exag- 
gerated: 

Trade brought to the points of exchange large numbers of Indians 
from great distances. 

The Indians naturally, for purposes of their own, magnified their own 
numbers and importance. 

The vast extent of the country compared with the more limited areas 
to which the English, French, and Spaniards were accustomed, and which 
were densely populated, led them to greatly magnify the actual population 
of the ^^Tew World. 

A few instances of the discrepancies between different estimates may 
be mentioned, as they have a direct bearing on the subject. 

Tlie CJiero'kees. 

Adair, who lived forty years among the Southern Indians, estimated 
the number of Oherokees in 1722 at 6,000 warriors, or 30,000 souls;* and 
forty years later at 2,300 warriors, or 11,500 souls. Another authority! 
estimates the same tribe in 1774 at 3,000 gun men, or 15,000 souls. 
Drake, the Indian historian, evidently following Adair, estimates the 
number of Cherokee warriors in 1721 at 6,000, or 30,000 souls; and states 
that, in 1738, the small-pox having been introduced among them by the 
slave dealers, one-half the population was swept away byit.f In his 
Xotes on Virginia, Mr. Jefferson estimates the number of Cherokee war- 
riors in 1768 at 3,000, or 15,000 souls ; § another author 1| estimated them, 
in a work written in 1790-91, at 2,500 warriors, or 12,500 souls, an esti- 
mate probably based on the authority of Dodge, 1779. In 1809, accord- 
ing to an actual enumeration made by the United States agent, there 
were in the Cherokee country 12,395 Cherokees, about one-half of whom 
were mixed bloods, 583 negro slaves, and 311 white] persons.^ Drake, 
above quoted, in another work, written during the Florida war, (1835-'42,) 
says of the Cherokees: "In 1819 there were about 10,000 inhabitants, 
and in 1825 they had increased to 13,563, all natives ;** while Gallatin, 
writing about the same time, (1836,) estimates their number, on the 
authority of the Indian Department, at about 15,000.tt The number of 

* History of the American Indians, by James Adair. London, 1775, pp. 227,257. It 
is generally assumed in estimating Indian population that the whole number is five 
times the number of warriors. 

t Stevens. History of Georgia, vol. 2, p. 93. 

t Chronicles of the Indians. Boston, 1836, p. 179. 

^ Notes on Virginia. Trenton, 1803, p. 142. 

II Imlay. Topographical Description, &c. London, 1797, p. 290. 

^ Morse. Report on Indian Affairs. New Haven, 1822, appendix, p. 152. 

** Book of the Indians. Tenth edition. Boston, 1848. Book IV, p. 97. 

tt Synopsis of th^ Indian Tribes. Archteologia Americana, vol. 2, p. 91. The same 
author, on page 135 of the same volume, estimates the entire Indian population of North 
America at 345,000 ; of whom he assigns 60,000 to tribes north of the present boundary 
of the United States, on the Pacific coast; 20,000 Algonkin-Lenape and 1,000 Iroquois 
to the British Dominions, leaving, in the United States, 264,000. 



14 



like estimates of the Cherokee population mi<,^bt be increased in dtfi- 
nitely, but enough have been quoted to serve the present purpose. 

A study of these several estimates reveals dlscrei)anc}ies that it seems 
impossible to reconcile ; but it is true that year by year more exact in- 
formation regarding the real numbers of the Oherokees is being obtained : 
and, taking the enumeration of 1809 as a starting point, it is likewise 
true that iiotvvitlistanding the depressing influences of removal,* and 
the destruction of life attending the civil war which swept over their ter- 
ritory, the Oherokees have substantially increased in numbers. Accord- 
ing to the report of the Indian Office for 1876 they numbered — 

In the Indian Territory 18,072 

In North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee 2,400 

Total 21,072 

The Seminoles. 

Several estimates of the numbers of the Seminoles will be interesting. 

In July, 1821, according to the observations of Mr. Peniere, communi- 
cated to General Jackson,t they numbered 4,560 5 in 1822 another au- 
thority estimated the number of Seminoles and other remnants of tribes 
in Florida" at 5,000. j. Captain Young's MS. journal (date not given) notes 
their geographical distribution and places the entire number at 6,385. § 
According to another estimate || of 1822 they numbered 1,594 men, 1,357 
women, and 993 children, making in all 3,899. Besides these there were 
800 negro slaves, 150 men and 650 women and children, making an 
aggregate of 4,699. Admitting that all the men were capable of bear- 
ing arms, and including the negro slaves, who, in the succeeding war, 
generally fought on the side of their Indian masters, it is found that 
the military strength of the Seminoles composed more than 36 per cent, of 
the whole population, instead of 20 per cent, as usually estimated — a fact 

* Enforced expatriation has probably done more to retard the increase of Indian pop- 
ulation than war, pestilence, or famine ; perhaps more than all combined. The history 
of the Cherokee removal in 1838 is a case in point. They were accompanied on their 
journey by the devoted missionaries who had long labored among them. On page 14, 
volume 36, of the Missionary Herald, will be found a brief account of this journey. It 
contains the following: " From the time they were gathered into camps by the United 
States troops in May and June, 1838, till the time the last detachment reached the Ar- 
kansas country, which was about ten months, a careful estimate shows that not less 
than 4,000 or 4,500 were removed by death, being on an average from thirteen to fif- 
teen deaths in a day, for the whole period, out of a population of 16,000, or one-fourth 
of the whole number. It does not appear that this mortality was owing to neglect 
or bad treatment while on the journey. It was probably necessarily involved in the 
measure itself, however carefully the arrangements might have been made, or however 
faithfully executed." 

t Morse. Report on Indian Afiairs, appendix, pp. 310, 311. 

t Ibid., appendix, p. 364. 

§ Ibid., loc. cit. 

II Sprague. The Florida War. New York, 1848, p. 19. This was evidently from 
actual enumeration. 



15 



that should not be forgotten in considering the estimates of the Presi- 
dent and Secretary of War in 1835, given below. 

General Porter, Secretary of War, estimates the number of Seminoles 
in 1829 at 4,000, and this number was repeated in a report of Greneral 
Cass, Secretary of War, to the President, under date of February 16, 
1832. 

On the eve of the outbreak of the war with the Seminoles in 1835? 
President Jackson estimated their military strength at 400 warriors, 
indicating a total population on the above basis of 1,111 ; at the same 
time General Cass, then Secretary of the Department of War, estimated 
their number at 750 warriors, or, on the same basis, 2,083 in all.* 

These estimates indicate a remarkable decrease compared with all 
preceding estimates j but they must have been based on the best official 
information attainable at the time j probably on that furnished by Lieut* 
C. A. Harris, disbursing agent, charged with the duty of providing sup- 
plies and transportation for the emigrating Indians, who was at Fort 
King, Florida, in the summer of 1835, actively engaged in that duty. 

After consulting with General Thompson (the Indian agent) upon the 
necessary means, and both having made diligent inquiry, aided by the 
intimate knowledge of officers of the Army at the post, he reported to 
the War Department that the entire nation, including negroes, did not 
exceed 3,000 souls. Of this number, he estimated that 1,600 were fe- 
males; and that the various bands, comprising the Florida Indians, 
could bring into the field 450 or 500 efficient warriors.! 

Another authority { states that the number was variously estimated 
at 3,000 to 5,000. " I am of the opinion they will be found to have ex- 
ceeded 3,700 when the war commenced." The same author estimated 
the military strength of the Indians, including negroes, at between 
1,700 and 1,900 warriors. 

Sprague says : § ''The number of warriors in the field at this time, 
(January 1, 1836,) as has been subsequently ascertained, was 1,660, to 
which may be added 250 negroes capable of bearing arms." General 
Scott, then commanding in Florida, in a report to the Secretary of War, 
dated April 30, 1836, said : " I am more than ever persuaded that the 
whole force of the enemy, including negroes, does not exceed 1,200 
fighting men. It is probably something less." || In the official reports 
of the Indian Office for 1837, the number of Florida Indians was given 

*Eemarks of Mr. Horace Everett, of Vermont, on the motion to add to the Army 
bill an appropriation of $300,000 for the suppression of Indian hostilities. House 
of Representatives, July 14, 1840. Mr. Everett used the following language: "I 
have means of being assured, by the best authority, that the President rated the 
Seminole warriors at not exceeding 400. The then Secretary of War rated them at 
750." — (North American Review, vol. 54, p. 6 ; National Intelligencer, March 1, 1841.) 

t Sprague. Florida War, p. 87. 

t The War in Florida, &c., by a late Staff Officer, [W. Potter]. Baltimore, 1836, p. 8. 
§ Florida War, p. 97. 
II Ibid., p. 131. 



16 



among those east of the Mississippi, " under treaty stipulations to re- 
move," at 5,000.* 

Kespectiug the accessions to the Indian force from the Creeks, and it- 
is probable that considerable numbers joined them— and perhaps from 
some negro slaves who ran away from their white masters — nothing defi- : 
nite can ever be known. Probably they were not very great. The Indians 
received reinforcements from no other source, unless we count the 
Spanish Indians of the extreme southern part of Florida, who engaged 
in the war in 1839, and who may not have been included in the first ^ 
estimates.! 

The vicissitudes through which the Seminole population passed in 
the next seven years of a destructive war, during which they contended 
against the whole available regular Army of the United States, aided by 
a portion of the Navy, and a militia and volunteer force of more than 
20,000 men from first to last,| can never be known; the Indians always 
concealing their losses as far as possible, and their adversaries usually 
overestimating the number of Indians slain. § Our own losses in action 
by wounds and disease during the Seminole war are partially known . 
From August, 1835, to 1812, they were as follows: 

United States Eegular Army, officers and enlisted men 1, 466 

United States Navy, officers, seamen, and marines 40 

United States Marine Corps, officers and enlisted men 49 

Aggregate II 1^555 

This official report does not include the losses of the volunteers and 
militia, which, in all probability, exceeded the above number. Our own 
losses, then, were over 3,000; more than seven times the whole number of 
Seminole warriors at the beginning of the war, according to the esti- 
mate of President Jackson. 

In July, 1850, after the lapse of fifteen years from the first attempt to 
remove them, the expatriation of the Florida Indians was practically 
complete, though a remnant of from 300 to 500 remained in their former 
homes. 

* Schoolcraft's History of the Iiidiari Tribes, vol. 3, p. 610. 
^ t Sprague's Florida War, p. 99. They numbered about 100 warriors. 
t Ibid, pp. 101, 102. 

§ General Thomas S. Jesup, who commanded our forces in Florida from December 
1836, to May 15, 1838, in his ofdcial report dated July 6, 1838, gives the number of In- 
dians and negroes captured and who surrendered from September 4, 1837, to May 15, 
1838, at 1,978, of whom 23 escaped, leaving 1,955 ; and estimated the number of Indians 
killed at 36. " Of this number killed and taken, the number of warriors, or those ca- 
pable of bearing arms, exceeded 600." He reports the number of Indians and negroes 
killed and captured from December, 1836, to September 4, 1837, at " equal to about 400, 
over a hundred of whom were warriors." He continues : " It will thus be seen that 
during the whole period of my command in Florida the Indians and negroes taken, 
with those who voluntarily surrendered, amounted to near 2,400, over 700 of whom 
were warriors." 

II Sprague's Florida War, pp. 526-550, where all the names are given. 



In Schoolcraft's ultimate aud consolidated table" the Seminoles are 
put down at 1,500 j* in 1853 they were stated to number 3,000, 2,500 in 
the Indian Territory and 500 in Florida ;t in 1860 they were reported at 
2,267^1 in 1865 the number in the Indian Territory was reported at 2,000 
in 1870 a slight increase was shown, the number reported in the Indian 
Territory being 2,136, || to which should be added 502 in Florida, from 
the United States census report, making 2,638. In 1875, according to 
the report of the Indian Office, the number had increased to 2,890, 2,438 
in the Indian Territory and 452 in Florida. In 1876 the number in the 
Indian Territory had increased to 2,553 from 2,438 in 1875. 

Alaska Indians. 

In the preceding statement respecting the Indian population of the 
United States from 1790 to 1876, the estimate of the number of Indians 
(70,000) in Alaska in 1870 by Gen. F. A. Walker, Superintendent of 
the ^inth Census, is included, with the remark that it is excessive. A 
similar extravagant estimate (65,000) will be found in Johnson's Cyclo- 
pedia.^] The latter is an excellent illustration of the looseness with 
which such statements are often made. Among the authorities quoted 
is W. H. Ball. It is proper to quote Lieutenant Dall's own estimate of 
the Indian population of Alaska in connection with this estimate of 
65,000 in the Cyclopedia. He says:** " The information contained in 
this article forms a summary of investigations which I have pursued 
since 1865, while engaged in duties w^hich took me, at one time or 
another, to nearly the whole of the coast herein mentioned, and over a 
considerable portion of the interior." 

After describing the habits and noting the geographical distribution 
of the several tribes he sums up the population as follows : 1 1 



Total Alaska Indians 11, 650 

Total Alaska Orarians (coast Indians) , , 14, 054 

25, 704 

Add Eussians , 50 

Add half-breeds or Creoles , , 1, 500 

Add citizens (including 100 military) 250 

• 1, 800 



Total population of the Territory J f „ 27, 504 



Lieutenant Dall adds : This estimate is probably over rather than 
under the real number, except for white citizen.^, whose number fluc- 

* History of tlie Indian Tribes, vol. 1, p. 524. 

t Report United States Census, 1850, p. sciv. . 
t Report Indian Aifairs, 1861, p. 215. 
§ Report Indian Affairs, 1865, p. 589. 
II Report Indian Affairs, 1870, p. 334. 

IF Johnson's New Universal Cyclopedia. New York, 1876. Article on "Alaska." 

* * Tribes of the Extreme Northwest, by W. H. Dall. Washington, 1876, p. 7. 
WIMd., p. 40. 

1 1 This table, slightly modified, will also be found in the report of the Commissioner 
of Indian Affairs for 1875, pp. 203, 204. 
2 K 



tuates, and who, dnriDg the mioing season, may number as many as 
fifteen hundred.'' 

Lieutenant DalPs estimate in 1870 agrees substantially with the above, 



being as follows :* 

Russians and Siberians , , 483 

Creoles or half-breeds 1, 421 

Native tribes , 26, 843 

Americans (not troops) 150 

Foreigners (not Eussians) , 200 



Total _ 29, 097 



It will be noted that the later and probably more accurate estimate is 
slightly lower than the first. 

In the report of Mr. Henry W. Elliott,! agent of the United States 
Treasury Department, will be found considerable information respecting 
the native population. He divides it into two classes : first, the Christian 
Aleuts ; and, second, all other Indians. Of the first he says : 

The Aleuts, as they appear to day, have been so mixed with Russian, 
Koloshian, and Kamschadale blood, &c., that they present characteris- 
tics in one way or another of the various races of men from the negro up 
to the Caucasian. * * * The number of these i)eople * * * is 
about 5,000, but when first discovered by the Eussians they were four 
or five times as many. In 1834 they numbered only about 4,000, Kodiaks 
included, and, therefore, they have not diminished nor increased to any 
noteworthy degree during the last forty years. There has been a slight 
increase, if any, up to the present time. 

Of the second class, he says : 

The number of Indians now living in the Territory is, according to 
bestautbority and my judgment, between eighteen and twenty thousand. 
Of this number between ten and twelve thousand belong to that district 
bounded on the north by Cook's Inlet, and south by Fort Simpson ; the 
remainder inhabit that stretch of country reaching from Bristol Bay to 
Kotzebue Sound, and back into the far interior, where there are several 
tribes, supposed to be quite numerous, about which very little is known, 
even by the traders, i 

Thus, according to Mr. Elliott, the total native population of Alaska 
in 1874 was 23,000 to 25,000, a substantial agreement with the estimates 
of Lieutenant Hall, in 1870, 1875, and 1876. 

Taking the reports of Dall and Elliott (and they are undoubtedly the 
most trustworthy) as a basis, it is safe to conclude that any estimate 
which assigns to Alaska an Indian population exceeding 25,000 is ex- 
cessive. It is highly probable that an actual enumeration will reduce 
these figures as low as 20,000, perhaps still lower; and when that is 
done it is to be hoped, but hardly to be expected in the light of past 
experience, that nobody will gravely point to the forty or fifty thousand 
difference between the census estimates of 1870 and the numbers ascer- 
tained by actual enumeration, and inform us that the Indians of Alaska 
are rapidly dying out, and will in a few years become extinct. 

* Alaska and its Resources, by W. H. Dall. Boston, lb70, p. 537. 
t Report on Alaska. Washington, 1874, pp. 21,22. 
+ IMcl, p. 2d. 



19 



California Indians. 

The relation of food-supply to savage population is intimate, hut some 
writers on tbe subject seem to have confounded cause and effect in a 
wonderful manner. While it is indubitably true that, a large savage 
population cannot exist where there is not an abundant natural sui^ply 
of food, as fish, fruit, or wild grain, the converse, that where there is 
an abundant supply of such means of subsistence there must necessarily 
be a large number of savages to consume it, is not true. 

An estimate of the number of Indians in California before the advent 
of the whites was, however, made up on the latter basis. It is weli 
known that those Indians subsisted mainly on fish, nuts, and native 
fruits, until the Spaniards began their missions among them about a 
• hundred years ago, and many of them long after. The estimate referred 
to proceeds to figure up their number about as follows: 

In 1870 the Indian population of one valley, 40 miles long, was 67^ 
to the square mile. Before the whites came there were doubtless 100. 
Let us suppose that there were 6,000 miles of streams in the State 
yielding salmon ; that would give a population of 405,000. The idea 
that wild oats furnished a very large part of the subsistence is probably 
erroneous ; but in all oak forests, acorns yielded at least four-sevenths of 
their subsistence, and fish two sevenths. On the treeless plains the pro- 
portion of fish was considerably larger, and various seeds contributed 
say one-seventh. There are far more acorns in the Sierra and the Coast 
range than on the river in the valley before mentioned, and all the in- 
terior rivers yielded salmon almost as abundantly as that river. In 
consideration of the greater fertility of Central and Southern California, 
there might be added to the above figures (405,000) 300,000; this would 
give 705,000 Indians in the State. 

So easy is it to popoulate unexplored countries. The estimate con- 
tinues : 

Let us take certain limited areas. The pioneers estimate the origi- 
nal population of Round Valley when they first visited it all the way from 
5,000 to 20,000. One thousand white people in it would be considered 

a very fair population, if, indeed, not crowded. Mr. estimates 

that there were from 300 to 500 Indians in Coyote Valley, near Ukiah ; 
now there are eight white families there, and they think they have none 
.too much elbow-room. G-eneral B. states that in 1849 there were at 
least 1,000 souls in tbe village of Karusi, (Colusa.) A Mr. E. i)ointed 
out the site of a village on Van Dusen's Fork, which he thought con- 
tained 1,000 people in 1850. Several other instances might be adduced 
if necessary. 

^ow, while it is granted that 705,000 Indians in a savage state could 
hardly subsist anywhere without large supplies of fish and nuts, or 
other natural means of subsistence, it is certain that the sturdy oaks 
on the hills and mountain sides of California might have regularly 
borne bountiful crops of acorns from year to year for centuries, and the 
salmon of her teeming rivers gone on increasing and multiplying for 
countless ages without suffering any inconvenience, if there had not 
been a single red man in all that broad territory. 

The theory hinted at in the above estimate, that a given area will sup- 



20 



port a greater savage than civilized population, is surely novel if nol 
startling. 

The Spaniards were the first Europeans who occupied California, and 
obtained any general idea of the numbers of the Indians. The number 
of Indians at their missions was 20,000 to 25,000, and tliey estimated 
the wild or mountain Indians at a somewhat less number, making about 
40,000 altogether ; and it is to be remembered always that whatever 
might have been the failings of the Spanish missionaries and explorers, 
underestimating the native population of their New^ World possessions 
was not one of them. 

Schoolcraft, in a table elsewhere referred to, under the date 1850 gives 
the number of Indians in California at 32,2315 another estimate, purely 
conjectural, also quoted, assigns to California an Indian population of 
100,000 in 1853. 

It should not be forgotten that the numbers thus estimated included 
not only those Indians comprised in the present State of California, but 
also many inhabiting the territory now embraced within the limits of 
Arizona, Nevada, and Utah, and, it is believed, some in Oregon. 

According to the United States census of 1870, the total Indian pop- 
ulation of California was 29,029, of which 13,025 were enumerated, and 
16,000 estimated. According to the report of the Indian Office for 1870 
the number of Indians in California was 21,627; adding 7,241, reported 
in the United States census taken the same year as '' out of tribal rela- 
tions," and therefore not included in the report of the Indian Office, we 
liave 28,868, a substantial agreement with the census report. 

According to the report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 
1876, the number of Indians in California was but 8,424; adding to this 
number 7,241, as before, we have 15,665, an apparent decrease in six 
jears of 13,203, or nearly 50 per cent. But it does not follow from this 
that the actual decrease is so great, or that there has been any diminu- 
tion whatever. If such a rule were followed, no allowance made for ex- 
cessive estimates at an early period, imperfect reports, emigration, with- 
drawal from agencies and tribal relations, and a comparison made 
between the report of the Indian Office for 1870 and the report of the 
same office for 1872, it would be found that in two years the number of 
Indians in California had decreased 18,828, or more than 65 per cent. 

A careful study of the reports of the Indian Office from 1870 to 1876, 
and of information from other sources, will probably show that the de- 
crease from 1870 to 1876 has not been so great as a comparison of the 
reports for those two years w^ould seem to indicate, though it is proba- 
ble that, owing to certain causes, detailed in the reports of the Indian 
Office, from year to year, the number of Indians in California is some- 
what less now than seven years ago. But the fact should not be forgot- 
ten that actual enumeration always reduces the estimated number of: 
Indians by a much greater ratio than any or all causes reduces their 
actual numbers. 



21 



The Iroquois Confederacy. 

This confederacy, comprising the Mohawks, Oneidas, Cayugas, Onon- 
dagas, Senecas, and, since about 1712-'15, the Tascaroras, affords- 
peculiar opportunities to study the changes and limitations of Indian 
population under many conditions. Its numbers have been a subject 
of speculation, estimate, and enumeration for more than two hundred 
years, first as a study of their military strength as enemies, or as allies ^ 
next as a commercial d'ement, on which the extent of the fur trade was- 
largely dependent; and finally as a constituent of the legitimate set- 
tled population. During this period they have been subjected to most 
of the usual severe tests encountered by every people struggling upwards 
from barbarism toward civilization j and to one, war, in an extraordi- 
nary degree, as alternately the allies and enemies of the French and. 
English in their giant contests for supremacy in Korth America; and as 
the allies of one or other side in the war of Independence, and a part of 
them again in the war of 1812. Their villages have been destroyed and 
their fields ravaged repeatedly by the French and American armies». 
More than half have been removed once ; a large part twice. Some of them 
have been always secluded on reservations, and had but limited inter- 
course with whites; while others have mingled freely with their white 
neighbors, by whose settlements they have been surrounded for nearly a 
century. Some have attained the dignity of citizenship, and a judicial tri- 
bunal in the State of New York has lately decided that the Oneidas liv- 
ing in that State have the right to vote. These Indians are usually, it 
may almost be said universally, spoken and written of as " a remnant 
of the Six Nations,'^ thus conveying the idea that at some period in the 
dim past the Six Nations were tribes whose immense numbers justified 
the imposing title ^* nations.'^ Let us try to lift the veil, and, by suck 
light as history affords, study the question of their numbers in the past 
and present, without reference to any cherished theory, or being misled 
by conjecture. Estimates will be of some assistance here for purposes 
of comparison, if we steadily bear in mind that they are almost invaria- 
bly greater than the true number. 

The tribes composing the Iroquois Confederacy are fully described in 
a recent work* by Dr. Morgan. 

* Ancient Society. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1877. A most valuable contribu- 
tion to the ethnical history of man has appeared within the present year, under the 
above title, from the pen of an American author. Five of the fifteen chapters of that 
part of this instructive and interesting work relating to the " growth of the idea of 
government," are exclusively devoted to a description of the ethnical history and 
progress of the North American Indians; and a proportionate space is allotted to themi 
in the three other parts into which the volume is divided. This work is destined to 
rank high among the very first on the subject to which it relates. The eminent author ^ 
Lewis H. Morgan, LL.D,, is widely known by his other works, "The League of the 
Iroquois," "Systems of Consanguinity and Aliinity of the Human Family," &c. His 
investigations have covered a long series of years, enriched by personal observation 
be is by adoption a member of the Seneca tribe. 



22 



The force of the thoughtCal remarks of Dr. Morgan on the natural 
limitations of Indian population liviug under gentile institutions will 
l)e appreciated by every student of the subject. He says: Numbers 
within a given area were limited by the amount of subsistence it af- 
forded. After farinaceous food was superadded to fish and game, the 
area occupied by a tribe was still a large one in proportion to the num- 
ber of the people. New York, with its forty-seven thousand square 
miles, never contained at any time more than twenty-five thousand 
Indians, including with the Iroquois the Algonkins, on the east side of 
the Hudson and upon Long Island, and the Eries and Neutral Nation 
in the western section of the State. A personal government founded 
upon gentes was incapable of developing sufficient central power to 
follow and control the increasing numbers of the people, unless they 
remained within reasonable distance from each other."* 

And again: ^'They [the Iroquois] resided in villages which were 
usually surrounded with stockades, and subsisted upon fish and game 
and the products of a limited horticulture. In numbers they did not 
at any time exceed 20,000 souls,! if they ever reached that number. 
Precarious subsistence and incessant warfare repressed numbers in all 
the aboriginal tribes, including the village Indians as well. The Iro- 
quois were enshrouded in the great forests which then overspread New 
York, against which they had no power to contend. They were first 
discovered A. H. 1608. About 1675 they attained their culminating 
point, when their dominion reached over an area remarkably large, 
covering the greater parts of New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, and 
portions of Canada north of Lake Ontario. At the time of their dis- 
covery they were the highest representatives of the red race north of 
New Mexico in intelligence and advancement, though perhaps inferior 
to some of the gulf tribes in the arts of life. In the extent and quality 
of their mental endowments, they must be ranked among the highest 
Indians in America. Although they have declined in numbers there 
are still four thousand Iroquois in New York, about a thousand in Can- 
ada, and near that number in the West ; thus illustrating the efficiency 
as well as persistency of the arts of barbarous life in sustaining exist- 
ence. It is now said that they are slowly increasing." | 

Eejecting La Hontan's exaggerated estimate of 70,000 as unworthy 
of credit, because it is not supported by any trustworthy evidence, or 
corroborated by any other authority, the first estimate to be noted here 
is that of 1660. 

* Ancient Society, p. 111. 

t A modification of the views entertained and expressed by the same author in 1851, 
when he wrote: "The period of their greatest prosperity and of their highest num- 
bers was evidently about the year 1650, shortly after the commencement of their in- 
tercourse with Europeans. At that time their total population may be safely placed 
&t 25,000.'! — League of the Iroquois. Eochester, 1851, pp. 26, 27. 

t Ancient Society, pp. 125, 126. Dr. Morgan's estimate of their present numbers is 
too low, as will be seen further on. 



23 



1660. 

The Jesuit Eelatiou of this yeitr makes the total number of warriors 
2,200, wliich, computing at the rate of five persons to each warrior, a 
liberal allowance in the case of the Iroquois,* indicates a total popula- 
tion of 11,000. The author of the Relation remarks: " It is marv^elous 
that so few should make so great a havoc, and strike such terror to so 
manv tribes." t 

1G65. 

There are two estimates for this year. 

I. The Jesuit Relation for 1665, J which makes the number of warriors 
2,350, a lOtal population of 11,750, an increase of 750 compared with the 
bstimate of 1660. 

II. In the account of the French expedition into the Iroquois couutry,§ 
which ei timates the number of their warriors as follows : Mohawks, 300 
t' 0; 3neidas, 110: Onoudagas, 300; Oayugas, 300; Senecas, 1,200. 
1 ^1, tr iiing the highest estimate of the Mohawks, 2,310 warriors, or 
11,700. 

The S!ibstantial agreement between these estimates will be noted. 
L -r -e based on information furnished by the Jesuit missionaries, 
whos? rsonal observations in the Iroquois country had extended over 
a perioc of some years. Le Moyne had been sent as an envoy to the 
Ooonda-as in 1654, and had doubtless obtained much knowledge re- 
specting the numbers of the Iroquois generally, both from themselves 
and frr the captive Hurons, among whom, before their captivity, he 
' u.d ia ed many years, and who, at this time received him with joy. || 
A Je3L;_ mission had also been founded at Onondaga nine years before, 
(1656,) [ iid the Jesuits had made extensive tours of missionary observa- 
tion among the villages of the Iroquois during that period. 

1677. 

^Wv'i years later two estimates of the number of Iroquois warriors 
we ' made. 

1. ■: of Wentworth Greeuhalgh, who made a journey from Albany 
.1 >ard through the Iroquois country in the summer of 1677, visiting 
most o heir towns. He e 'imates the number of their warriors as fol- 
lows:^] ylohawks, 300; Oi]jidas, 200; Onondagas, 350; Oayugas, 300; 
Senecas, 1,000 ; total, 2,150; indicating a population of 10,750, a decrease 
of about 1,000 from the French estimate of 1665. 

* The word Iroquois, wherever it appears in these noteS; is used to denote the Six 
Nations only, not all the Iroquois, 
t Parkman's Jesuits in Norih America, p. Ixvi, note. 

trud. 

^Papers relating to Denonville and de Tracy's Expeditions. Documentary History 
of New York, vol. 1, pp. 60-61. 
ii Parkman's Old Eegime in Canada, p. 13. 
11 Doc. Hist. New York, vol. 1, pp. 11-14. 



24 



2. Tbat of Colonel Ooursey, at Albany, who estimated their whole 
Dumber at 17,000. Morgan remarks of this estimate, " but it is known 
that his (Colonel Coursey's) means of judging were very imperfect.* 

Of these two estimates that of Greenhalgh, based on personal ob- 
servation, is, of course, to be accepted as most trustworthy. 

1681. 

The intendant of New France, Du Chesneau, in his Memoir on the 
Western Indians,! dated October 13, 1681, estimates the number of Iro- 
quois warriors at " no more than 2,000 men at most," or 10,000 persons. 

1682. 

Governor de la Barre, when preparing for his expedition into the Iro- 
quois country in 1682, estimated the number of their warriors at 2,600, 
or 13,000 in all.f He was estimating the strength of an enemy he ex- 
pected soon to encounter. 

1685. 

In a French "Memoir concerning the present state of Canada,"§ 
dated November 12, 1685, the number of warriors was estimated as 
follows: Mohawks, 200; Oueidas, 150; Onoudagas, 300 ; Cayugas, 200 ; 
Senecas, 1,200 ; total, 2,050, or 10,250 souls. 

1687. 

Another French "Memoir on the state of Canada,'' dated January, 
1687, says: "The Iroquois force consists of 2,000 picked warriors."|[ 
This would indicate a total population of about 10,000, or perhaps a few 
more. 

1689. 

In 1689, Governor Bellomont, in accordance with instructions, made 
a report showing the number of whites and Indians respectively in 1689 
and 1698, to show what decrease had ensued from the war during that 
period. He reported the number of Iroquois warriors in 1689 as follows:^ 
Mohawks, 270; Oneidas, 180; Onondagas, 500; Cayugas, 320; Senecas* 
1,300; total, 2,570; aggregate, 12,850. Perhaps this estimate did not 
include the Iroquois who, under the influence of the French missiona- 
ries, had emigrated to Canada some years before. It is well to remark 
here that they, whatever may have been their numbers, were probably 
not included in Governor Bellemont's estimate of 1698; and perhaps 
though not probably, they were omitted from the estimate of Governor 

* League of tlie Iroquois, p. 25. 

tNew York Colonial Documents, vol. 9, p. 162. 

t IhicL, vol. 9, p. 196. 

^ Doc. Hist. New York, vol. 1, p. 196. 

II New York Colonial Documents, vol. 9, p. 321. 

H Doc. History New York, vol. 1, p. 690 ; New York Colonial Documents, vol. 4, p. 420. 



25 



Hunter in 1720. As a geuenil rale, tbey were iiicliuled in all estimates 
preceding ""he Kevolution. 

1G98. 

Governor Bellomont, in the report above mentioned, stated the num- 
ber of Iroquois warriors in 1698 as follows:* Mohawks, 110; Oneidas, 
70; Onondagas, 250; Cayugas, 200 ; Senecas, 600; total, 1,230; aggre- 
gate, 6,150; thus showing a decrease of more than one-half their num- 
ber in nine years of war, during which they were active allies of the 
English against the French. In a letter f to the lords of trade, dated 
May, 1698, Governor Bellomont spoke of the Iroquois as having been 
" half destroyed by this war," and stated that he had given an order to 
have them numbered. The activity of the Iroquois in behalf of their 
English allies does not appear to have been diminished by their losses 
and reverses, for we find Governor Hunter, of New York, writing to 
Secretary St. John, under date of September 12, 1711, when the English 
and French were again at war, enumerating as part of the forces de- 
signed for an expedition against Canada the five nations, with their 
allies, 800." j: At a council held in Albany a few days before that, the 
Indians reported their warriors ready to engage in the expedition as 
follows :§ Senecas, 182; Shawanoes, (Shawn ees,) " Avho are under the 
Senecas," 26; Cayugas, 127; Onondagas. 99; Oneidas, 93; Mohawks, 
155 ; total, 682. 

1720. 

In 1720 Governor Hunter, in answer to an inquiry of the lords of trade^ 
reported the Iroquois as " not making in all above 2,000 fighting men."|[ 
It cannot now be ascertained whether this estimate included the Tusca^ 
roras, which tribe, between 1712 and 1720, emigrated from North Carolina 
to New York and became a member of the Iroquois confederacy. 

1736. 

In this year an "Enumeration of the Indian tribes connected with the 
Government of Canada" was prepared. Of course the figures given are 
based on estimates, not on actual enumeration. The author of the esti- 
mate is not known with certainty. Dr. O'Callaghan attributes it in one 
work^ to Joncaire, from the fact that the author describes himself as an 
adopted member of the Seneca tribe, to which Joncaire belonged by 
adoption ; but in another** he says : This cannot well be, as that officer 
was on the Ohio at this date, and the writer was at Michilimacina." He 
might possibly have been at both places the same year. Schoolcraft, 
in his History of the Indian Tribes, attributes the estimate to M. de la 

*Doc. Hist. New York, vol. 1, p. 690; N. Y. Colonial Documents, vol. 4, p. 420. 
tNew York Colonial Documents, vol. 4, p. 305. 
t IMd., vol. 5, p. 254. 
§ Ibid, vol. 5, p. 272. 
il lUd., vol. 5, p. 557. 

•I Doc. Hist, of New York, vol. 1, p. 23, note. 

** New York Colonial Documents, vol. 9, p. 1058, note. 



26 



Chauvignerie, but on what authority is unknown.. It bears evidence of 
care and extensive personal observation, and may be regarded as among 
the most trustworthy of the early estimates of Indian population. The 
Iroquois warriors were estimated as follows, including those within the 
present limits of Canada: Iroquois, Sault St. Louis, (Canada,) 30Q ; Iro- 
quois, Toniata, (Canada,) 10; Iroquois, Lake of Two Mountains, (Can- 
ada,) 60; Onondagas, 200; Mohawks, 80; Oneidas, 100; Cayugas, 120; 
Senecas, 350 ; Tuscaroras, 250 ; a total of 1,470. This would indicate a 
total Iroquois population, including those whose descendants now live 
in Canada, of 7,350. 

One fact in this estimate should be noted. The author was an adopted 
member of the Seneca tribe, and it may reasonably be supposed, there- 
fore, that his information regarding it was more definite than that re- 
specting any other. His estimate of the Senecas was 350, or in all 1,750. 

1738. 

The commissioners of Indian affairs for the province of Xew York, in 
reply to inquiries of the governor and council, in a report dated Febru- 
ary 4, 1738, estimated the numbers of the Indian warriors as follows:* 
*'The Six Nations, including the Kiver and Schaachkook Indians, are 
about 1,500 fighting men. * * * The Indians living near about Montreal 
and Quebeck are about 1,000 fighting men ;" total, 2,500, or in all 12,500. 
But these included the ''River and Schaachkook Indians," the former 
of which, according to the estimate of Earl Bellomont, numbered 450, 
or about 7 per cent, of the Indian population ; estimating their strength 
in 1738 according to the same ratio, they numbered 525, and deducting 
this number from 7,500 (1,500 X 5) leaves 6,975 Iroquois in New York. 
The estimate of the commissioners, regarding the Indians in Canada of all 
tribes, was of course entirely conjectural. The French estimate of 1736 
was based on much better information, and was as follows: Hurons, 60 
warriors; Abenakes of St. Francis, 180; Algonkins, &c., 85; Iroquois, 
370; total, 695, or in all 3,475. Combining the English estimate of the 
Iroquois in New York and the French estimate of the Iroquois in Canada, 
we have 8,825. 

1763. 

We come now to an estimate made in November, 1763, which may be 
accepted with more confidence than any that preceded it. The period 
was favorable to a fair statement based on the best evidence that could 
be procured. The contest between France and England for ascendency 
in North America, which began in 1613, and continued with few inter- 
missions for one hundred and fifty years, was definitely terminated by 
the treaty of peace of February, 1763, when Canada passed into the 
possession of Great Britain. The military strength of the Iroquois, no 



* Doc. Hist. New York, vol. 4, p. 240. 



27 



longer interposed as a barrier to protect the English frontier and to 
form a contingent for military expeditions against the French, was now 
a matter of less consequence, and the opportunities to ascertain their 
actual numbers and condition were greatly bettered. Sir William John- 
son, an enlightened public spirited man, who had long lived among 
the Iroquois, and who enjoyed their highest respect and affection, 
was the superintendent of Indian affairs. He took a warm interest 
in their affairs and in all efforts to improve their condition j he doubt- 
less understood their circumstances better than any other man of his 
century. His estimate of their numbers, based on extensive personal 
observation and diligent inquiry, was as follows:* Mohawks, 160 men; 
Oueidas, 250 men ; Tuscaroras, 140 men ; Onondagas, 150 men ; Oayu- 
gas, 200 men; Senecas, 1,050 men; Oswegatchies,t 80 men; Oaghnawa- 
gas,! 300 men ; total, 2,330. Allowing live persons to each man, the 
total number was 11,650. 

Besides these, there were "Kanticokes, Conoys, Tutecoes, Saponeys, 
&c., 200 men." These were tribes from the county south of New 
York, who had removed from there and settled on the Susquehanna, on 
lands allotted by the Six ]N"ations. Sir William Johnson speaks of them 
as being " immediately under the direction of the Six Nations." Some 
of these dependents and allies of the Six Nations may have been event- 
ually incorporated into that body, bVit it appears, according to Sir Will- 
iam Johnson's letter to Governor Tryon, in October, 1773, that, though 
still allies of the Six Nations, many of them had removed from the Sus- 
quehanna westward. § 

1768. ■ " _ 

The next estimate is that of Capt. Thomas Hutchins, who, according 
to Mr. Jefierson,|| visited most of the tribes in 1768, and published the 
results of his observations in London ten years afterward. His esti- 
mate was as follows: Oswegatchies, 100; Oaghnawagas, 300; Mohawks, 
160; Oneidas, 300; Tuscaroras, 200; Onondagas, 260; Gayugas, 200; 
Senecas, 1,000 ; total, 2,520, or 12,600 persons, besides the subject-tribes 
on the Susquehanna, which he estimated at 310 warriors, or 1,550 per- 
sons, making 14,150; an increase over Sir William Johnson's estimate, 
five years before, of 950 Iroquois and 550 of the Indians on the Susque- 
hanna.^ 

1770. 

In a letter to Eev. Charles Inglis, dated November, 1770, Sir William 
Johnson estimated the numbers of the Iroquois warriors as follows:** 

*Doc. Hist. New York, vol. 1, pp. 26-27. 

t Emigrants from the Six Nations, chiefly Onondagas. 

t Emigrant Mohawks in Canada. 

§ New York Colonial Documents, vol. 8, p. 459. 

II Notes on Virginia, p. 138. 

^/M(7.,pp. 139, 140. 

* Doc. Hist. New York, vol. 4, p. 427. 



28 



OnoDclagas, 200 ; Cayiigas, 200 j Senecas, 1,000. The numbers of the 
Mohawks and Oneidas are not specifically given, but the letter contin- 
ues : There are, besides, many of every nation settled with other tribes 
at and about the Susquehanna, &c., which, if added to their respective 
nations, would increase the number, and the Tuscaroras alone since the 
last body of them came from the southward to joyn the rest may now 
[make] abt. near 250, so that the whole of the Six I^ations without includ- 
ing any others will amount to 2,000 fighting men, by which the number of 
souls may be calculated in the usual manner." This would indicate a 
total Iroquois population of 10,000, and shows a slight decrease from the 
estimate of the same author seven years before. 

1773. 

In June, 1774, Governor Tryon, of New York, made a report on the 
state of the province to the British Government, in which he embodied 
a rei)ort* of Sir William Johnson, dated October 22, 1773, respecting the 
number and disposition of the Indians. This report is especially inter- 
esting as giving the latest information regarding the numbers of the 
Iroquois before the beginning of the Revolution. The whole number of 
the Six Nations was estimated at 2,000 fighting men, or 10,000 souls, of 
which one-half were thought to be Senecas. There is some obscurity 
regarding one part of this report relating to the Indians in Canada ; but 
if none of them are included in the above 10,000, and all are estimated 
as Iroquois, they would swell the entire numbers of the Iroquois to 
13,500. Probably 1,000 should be deducted for Hurons, Algonkius, &c.y 
who were never members of the confederacy, leaving 12,500; an increase 
of 850 in ten years, compared with Sir William Johnson's estimate of 
1763. 

1779. 

Mr. Jefferson reproduces the estimate + of John Dodge, an Indian 
trader, under this date, which assigns to the Mohawks 100 warriors; 
to the Oneidas and Tuscaroras combined, 400; to the Onondagas, 230; to 
the Oayugas, 220 ; and to the Senecas, 650; total, 1,600, or 8,000 souls. 
This estimate, it will be observed, does not include the emigrant Mo- 
hawks, Onondagas, &c., which were comprised in that of Sir William 
Johnson. 

1791. 

The war of the Revolution, in which a large majority of the Iroquois 
warriors served as active allies of the British, the remainder taking 
sides with the colonies or remaining neutral, doubtless prevented any 
increase, if it did not actually reduce the Iroquois population. It has 

* New York Colonial Documents, vol. 8, p. 458. 

t Notes on Virginia, p. 140. This is identical witb the estimate given by Schoolcraft 
in vol. 6 of his History of the Indian Tribes, made, he says, under the auspices of the 
War Department." 



29 



been estimated tliat 1,810 of their warriors joined one or the other army.* 
The first estimate of their numbers after the Revolution was that of 
Imlay, corrected, he says, ^' from Oroghan, Bouquet, Carver, Hutchins, 
and Dodge, and by the comparative testimony of the best informed 
men I have been able to meet with ; and whose knowledge upon this 
subject, though they have not written, I should prefer to either of 
the above authorities, who were obliged to take the greatest part of 
what they have related from hearsay or proceed upon conjecture."! The 
letter containing the estimate is not dated, but w^as written from 
Kentucky soon after the defeat of General St. Clair, in 1791. The Iro- 
quois are numbered as follows : Oswegatchies, 100; Caghnawagas, &c., 
240; Senecas,550; Cayugas,180: Onondagas,200; Oneidas,250; Tuscaro- 
ras, 170; Mohawks, 140; total, 1,830, indicating an aggregrate popula- 
tion of 9,150. Comparing this with Dodge's estimate, we must subtract 
the first two items in this estimate, amounting to 340, or 1,720 persons, 
which leaves 7,430 as against his estimate of 8,000 dated twelve years 
before. It seems improbable that the net Iroquois loss during the Rev- 
olution was less than 600, as it would be made to appear by a compari- 
son of these two estimates ; but both are probably entitled to about 
equal credit, and both are probably excessive. 

1796. 

Dr. Morse wrote that when he visited them in 1796, on a missionary 
journey, "The whole population of the Six Nations, including their 
adopted children, was 3,748."j: By " adopted children" Dr. Morse meant 
the Moheakunnuk, or New Stockbridge, and the Brotherton Indians, who 
had removed to New York and settled near the village of the Oneidas 
on land given them by that tribe. 

It is to be noted that this and following estimates deal with the 
Iroquois population as a whole, the warriors not being specifically esti- 
mated, and that one element of uncertainty is thereby eliminated. 

1818. 

Between 1796 and 1818 a portion of the Iroquois again engaged in 
hostilities against the United States as the allies of Great Britain, and 
in consequence many more emigrated to Canada. In the latter year, 
according to an official return to the War Department by Jasper Parrish, 
Indian subagent, they numbered 4,575§ in the State of New York. 

* Schoolcraft, Notes on the Iroquois, p. 17. This would indicate a total population of 
9,050. Schoolcraft remarks : "This estimate, which appears to have been carefully made 
from authentic documents, is the utmost that could well be claimed. It was made at 
the era when danger prompted the pen of either party in the war to exhibit the mil- 
itary strength of this confederacy in its utmost power; and we may rest here, as 
safe point of comparison, or, at least, we cannot admit a higher population." 

tTopographical Description of the Western Territory, p. 294. 

^Morse's Report on Indian Affairs, appendix, p. 76. 

§Ibid., appendix, p. 77. 



30 



1819. 

According to a report made to the Kew York legislature in Marcby 
1819, the number of Iroquois in Kew York at that time was 4,538. 

1821. 

The next official estimate of the Iroquois was made in 1821, by Kev. 
Jedidiah Morse, from personal observation and the best official and 
other data he could obtain. It is as follows, by reservations:* Oneidas, 
1,031 5 Tuscaroras, 314; Onoudagas, 229; Senecas and Onondagas, 597; 
Senecas and Belawares,t (two reservations,) 729 ; Senecas, Cayugas, and 
Onondagas, 700; Senecas and a few of other tribes, 456; total, 4,056; 
a decrease of 519, compared with the report of Parrish, three years be- 
fore. This decrease may be explained hj the removal of a number of the 
Oneidas and others to Canada, and the fact that a portion of the Oneidas 
were then making preparations to rempve to Green Bay, and may have 
been absent at the time the examination was made. They began to re- 
move from Kew York some time in the following year. 

1825. 

In 1825 the Secretary of War made a report respecting the removal 
of the tribes then east of the Mississippi, in which the numbers of the 
Iroquois were rated as follows :| Oneidas, 1,096 ; Onondagas, 446 ; Cay- 
ugas, 90; Senecas, 2,325; Tuscaroras, 253 ;§ St. Hegis, 300; total, 
4,510. Besides these it was estimated that there were 551 Senecas in 
Ohio, making an aggregate of 5,061. 

1829. 

General Porter, Secretary of War, in his report on the Indians in the 
United States in 1829, enumerates the Iroquois, as follows :1| Senecas in 
New York, 2,300, in Ohio, 600; Oneidas in Kew York, 400, in Wiscon- 
sin, 700; Onondagas, 450; Cayugas, 100; Tuscaroras, 250; total, 4,800. 
But it will be noted that the St. Regis Indians, numbering 300, accord- 
ing to the report of 1825, are omitted. Including these the total would 
be 5,100. 

1845. 

In 1845, an official census of the Iroquois Indians in New York was 
made by H. E. Schoolcraft, under the authority of the State. His 
report to the secretary of state of New York, dated October 31, 1845, 

* Morse's Report on Indian Affairs, appendix, p. 361. 

t These were a few individuals, probably not exceeding thirty, who had become amal- 
gamated wdth the Senecas. 
t History Indian Tribes, vol. 3, 583, seg. 

^iThese Indians are descendants of Iroquoip, chiefly Mohawks, who emigrated to 
Canada in the seventeenth century, under the influence of the Jesuit missionaries. 
They appear in some of the ante-revolutionary estimates as Caghnawagas. Part of 
those Indians afterward settled on the St. Lawrence River, and when the boundary 
line between the United States and Canada was established it divided their settlement, 
one portion remaining in Canada and the other falling within the limits of the United 
States, so that part are now reported in the Canadian, and part in the United States 
census. 

IIHistory Indian Tribes, vol. 3, p. 590, seq. 



31 



enumerates tbem as follows ;* Seuecas, 2,441 Onondagas, 398 ; Tusca- 
roras, 281; Oueidas, 210; Cayiigas, 123; Mohawks, 20; St. Eegis, 
360 ; Senecas, (iu Pennsylvania,) 51 ; total, 3,884. 

The number of Oneidas in Wisconsin the previous year (1844) was 
officially reportedf at 722 ; Senecas, in Indian Territory, 125 ; Senecas 
and Shawnees, 211; total, deducting one-balf of the last number for 
Shawnees, 925, w^hich, added to those officially enumerated as above, 
makes 4,836. 

Schoolcraft estimates the number of Iroquois in Canada at the same 
time at 2,106, making tbe total number of that confederacy 6,942. He 
remarks : t " I cannot, however, submit this result without expressing 
the opinion that the Iroquois population has been loiver, between the 
era of the revolutionary war and the present time, than the census 
now denotes; and that for some years past, and since they have been 
well lodged and clothed and subsisted by their o^n labor, and been 
exempted from the diseases and casualties incident to savas^e life, and 
the empire of the forest, their population has recovered, an 1 is now on 
the increase." 

The number of births the previous year was reported ad 121; the 
number of deaths at 120; the number of marriages at 36. 

1850. 

Although official estimates of the numbers of the Iroquois might be 
presented for nearly every year since 1845, it will serve the present pur- 
pose and economize space, to give them at periods of five years each 
from that time and for the year 1877, the figures for which year have 
been courteously furnished by Hon. E. A. Hayt, Commissioner of Indian 
Affairs, from his forthcoming annual report. It is only necessary to 
remark that the reports from year to year do not denote any state of 
facts different from tliat presented, there having been no remarkable 
fluctuations of Iroquois population from any cause. 

The following figures are from official enumeration :§ Oneidas in l^ew 
York, 153; in Wisconsin, 762; Onondagas, 376; Cayugas, 150; Senecas 
in Pennsylvania, 55; in ^^'ew York, 2,563; in Indian Territory, 158; 
Senecas and Sbawnees,|| Indian Territory, 273; Tuscaroras, 285; St. 
Eegis, 450 ; total, 5,225. 

* Notes on the Iroquois, New York, 1846, p. 17. It is impossible to reconcile these 
figures with those given in the tabulated statement of Mr. Schoolcraft, page 191, of the 
same volume, which foots up 3,753, instead of 3,833 (51 in Pennsylvania deducted from 
3,884.) The net difference, excluding the Senecas in Pennsylvania, is 80. It may be 
that these were reported as living off reservations and out of tribal relations. 

t Doc. No. 2, H. E., 28th Cong., 2d session. 

t Notes on the Iroquois, p. 17. 

^ History Indian Tribes, vol. 1, p. 441. 

II The population of each is not given. This small baud, now known as "Eastern 
Shawnees," early united with the Senecas ; they have been officially considered together 
since the Senecas resided in Ohio ; and doubtless were united and lived with them as 
early as 1711, when Shawnee warriors figured in the contingent furnished the English 
for the expedition against Canada. 



32 



1855. 

Two enumerations of the Iroquois at this period are presented : 

1. The report of the New York State census for 1855 is as follows,* 
by reservations: Allegany, Tonawanda, and Cattaraugus, chiefly Senecas, 
2,535; Oneida, 161; Onondaga, 349; St. Eegis, 413; Tuscarora, 316; 
total, 3,774 ; but it is shown in a note that the marshal's enumeration of 
Cattaraugus reservation is too small, 1,388 having been reported in May, 
1855, on the annuity rolls ; adding 209, the difference between 1,388 and 
1,179, we have 3,953. This, it is to be noted, included only those living on 
reservations, besides whom there were scattered throughout the State 
235 other Indians who had abandoned tribal relations and were living 
among the whites. Probably most of these, except 8 in Kings, 7 in 
Queens, and 11 in New York Counties, were Iroquois, but there are no 
means of ascertaining with certainty.f 

2. An official statement by the Indian Office.j: It is as follows: Cayu- 
gas, 143; Oneidas, in New York, 249, in Wisconsin, 978; Onondagas, 
470; St. Eegis, (1849,) 450 ; Senecas, in New York, 2^557, in Ohio, 180; 
Senecas and Shawnees, Lewiston, 271 ; Tuscaroras, 280 ; total, 5,578. 
To form a comparison with the New York census it is necessary to de- 
duct 1,429 Indians above reported not in that State, leaving 4,149, an 
excess over the New York census report of 199. 

1860. 

The enumeration for this year is taken from the report of the Indian 
Office for 1861. It is as follows : Cayugas, 151 ; Oneidas, 291 ; Onon- 
dagas, 298 ; Senecas, 2,871 ; Tuscaroras, 334; total, 3,945. This is an 
imperfect report ; the Oneidas in Wisconsin, and the Senecas, and Sen- 
ecas and Shawnees in the Indian Territory not being enumerated at all. 
The report of the New York agent for 1860 is brief and imperfect, and 
there is no published report of that agency for 1861. 

1865. 

For this year two enumerations are presented ; the first, of the Iro- 
quois in the State of New York alone, and the second, of all the Iroquois 
in the United States. 
1. The report of the New York State census remarks: § 
The census shows a slow but steady increase of population among the 
Indian tribes of the State, thus opposing facts to the favorite theory of 
the gradual and final extinction of the Indian race. The discontinuance 
of wars prosecuted for revenge or for the purpose of replacing deceased 
members of families, and the protection secured under the laws of civil- 
ized life, appear to promise the indefinite continuance of these people 

* Census of New York, 1855, p. 500. 

t In 1855 the subject of Indian education came before the New York legislature, and 
according to a report of a committee of the assembly the Iroquois were "about 18 per 
cent, more numerous than they were twenty-three years ago, and are steadily increas- 
. dng." 

t Report of Commissioner of Indian Afifairs, 1855, pp. 575, 576. 
^ Report New York State Census, 1865, p, 600. 



33 



among us, and suggest the importance of introducing intelligence and 
industry as the surest means of raising them to the degree of improve- 
ment that may entitle them to the duties and privileges of citizens. 

The enumeration is as follows, by reservations : Allegany, Cattarau- 
gus, and Tonawanda, 2,681 J Oneida, 155; Onondaga, 360; St. Regis, 
426; Tuscarora, 370; total, 3,992. The number of Indians in the State 
not on reservations is not given. 

2. The report of the Indian Ofiice, which is as follows :* Iroquois in 
Kew York, 3,956 ;t Oneidas in Wisconsin, 1,064; Quapaws, Senecas 
and Shawnees, and Senecas, in the Indian Territory, 670 ; total, 5,690. 
From this must be deducted the Qaapaws, the number of which sep- 
arately reported in 1864, was 431, and in 1866 350; they may be esti- 
mated at 390 in 1865. Deducting this number from 5,690, we have 
5,300 as the total number of the Iroquois in 1865. 

1870. \ 

For this year also two enumerations are presented : 

1. The report of the United States census :| Sustaining tribal rela- 
tions, 4,705 ; out of tribal relations, 439; total, 5,144. From this should 
probably be deducted 7 in Kings, 4 in Queens, 9 in ISTew York, and 162 
in Suffolk Counties ; total, 182; which would leave 4,962 as the Iroquois 
population of IsTew York in 1870. 

2. The report of the Indian Office for 1870 does not show separately 
the Oneida population in Wisconsin, nor the number of Senecas in the 
Indian Territory. The number of Iroquois in Kew York is given at 
4,804. 

1875. 

For this year we have the E"ew York census and the Report of Indian 
Affairs. 

1. According to the first, the total number of Indians in New York 
was 4,880. By deducting from this the number in Kings, New York, 
and Suffolk Counties, 208, (who are probably Algonkins,) we have 4,672 
as the Iroquois population of New York in 1875. 

2. According to the report of the Indian Office for the same year, the 
Iroquois population of the United States was as follows : In the Indian 
Territory, Senecas, 240, Eastern Shawnees, 97 ; New York, 4,955; Wis- 
consin, Oneidas, 1,332; total, 6,624. 

• 1877. 

The enumeration for the present year is as follows : Senecas, in New 
York and Pennsylvania, 2,963, in Indian Territory, 235; Eastern Shaw- 
nees, 115; Oneidas, in New York, 249, in Wisconsin, 1,324; Onondagas, 
493; Cayugas, 184; Tuscaroras, 401; St. Regis, 751; total, 6,715. 

* Eeport of Indian Office, 1665, pp. 575-578. 

t On page 590 of the same report the number of New York " Senecas and others" is 
given at 3,989. 
+ Page xvii. 

3e 



34 



The Iroquois of Canada. 

Meiition Las been made of the Mohawks and others who, from time 
to time, emigrated to Canada, and regarding whose numbers some esti- 
mates at an early period have been given. The following statement 
of their numbers in 1868, 1874, 1875, and 1876 is presented. 

The data for the year 1868 are from the report of F. N. Blake, in 
1870, United States consul at Hamilton, Ontario;* for the other years 
from the ofQcial reports of the Canadian Indian office. 

In 1868 the Iroquois in Canada were reported as follows : 

Mohawks of Bay of Quinte 683 

Six Nation Indians of the Grand Eiver 2, 796 

Iroquois of Sault St. Louis 1, 601 

Iroquois of St. Kegis 801 

Total 5,881 

In 1874, 1875, and 1876 they were reported as follows : 



1874. 1875. 



1876. 



Oneidas of the Thames 

Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte 
Six Nations of Grand River . . . 

Iroquois of Sault St. Louis 

Iroquois of St. Regis 

Total 



604 
784 
2, 996 
1,557 
904 



604 
804 
3, 052 
1,511 
922 



604 
822 
3, 069 
1,511 
947 



6,845 



6, 893 



6,953 



Total Iroquois in the United States and Canada. 

Adding 6,715, the number of Iroquois in the United States in 1877, to 
the number of those in Canada as above reported, we have a total of 
13,668, a number considerably exceeding any trustworthy estimate of their 
numerical strength for more than one hundred years. This conclusion 
is undoubtedly rather under than over their true numbers, as will be 
shown at a future time. 

These Indians have in their history, as has been said, experienced almost 
every test that can be applied to the vitality of a people emerging from 
barbarism into civilization, and we have here the results as affecting 
their numbers. A few remarks on the condition of those in New York 
may appropriately^ fin'd place here. They are taken from the interesting 
report of the agent in that State for 1877, kindly furnished by the Com- 
missioner of Indian Affairs, in advance of its publication. He says: 

Of the 27 teachers in the Indian State schools of New York, 9 were Indians, wkc, 
liaving been judiciously selected, and having previously received thorough education 
and training for their work, in high schools, with aid of appropriations from the Uni- 
ted States, succeeded admirably. The day schools under instruction of the Indian 
teachers are generally better sustained by the Indian parents, and have larger attend- 

* H. R. Mis. Doc. No. 35, Forty-first Congress, second session. 



35 



ance of scholars than the others. The largest school in the agency, being the one 
connected with the Thomas Orphan Asylum at Cattaraugus, with an average daily 
attendance of about 90 students, is instructed by competent Indian teachers, and is in, 
all respects a model school. I deem it quite desirable for the success of these Indian! 
schools that an appropriation should be made for the training of teachers therein, and 
I respectfully^ renew the recommendation therefor in my last annual report. 

Speaking of the Cattaraugus reservation he remarks : 

The Iroquois Agricultural Society of the Indians of the State of New York, which is 
incorporated under its laws, held its annual fair and cattle show upon this reservatioE 
during four days of the third week of the past month. More people attended it than, 
at any preceding fair of the society, and the exhibition of fruits, vegetables, and grain 
was exceedingly creditable to the Indians. The receipts of the fair were over $1,400, 
which were mostly paid out in premiums to the exhibitors, who entered over 1,300 
articles for exhibition. 

A temperance convention of the Six Nations of New York was held upon this reser- 
vation during three days of the fourth week of the past mouth. The movement was 
organized by the leading Indians, of whom seventy were present from the other reser- 
vations in the agency. Four Indian brass bands of music were in attendance, and 
nearly all the speakers were Indians. Much enthusiasm prevailed. The Indians of 
Cattaraugus reservation turned out en masse to attend the meetings on each occasion, 
filling the spacious Presbyterian church to its utmost capacity. Some of the Indians 
came several Imndred miles to attend this convention, besides the delegates who 
were present from Green Bay, Wis., and from Canada. The Indians of the agency ap- 
pear to be fairly aroused to the great importance of protecting themselves from the 
use of spirituous liquors, which have been so great a destroyer of their race. They 
have temperance organizations upon all the reservations, and I take pleasure in report- 
ing a marked improvement of late in the temperate habits of these people, and in their 
willingness to aid i^ the enforcement of the criminal laws against persons who sell 
them liquors. 

He thus concludes that part of his report relating to the Tuscaroras : 

Circumstances seem to have contributed in making the Tuscaroras more self-reliant 
than the other tribes in this agency. They have received no money annuities from any 
source, only an annuity in goods, in value of about 90 cents per capita. They are a 
temperate, industrious, and thrifty agricultural community, and in their farms, farm 
products, buildings, and agricultural implements, compare favorably with their white 
neighbors. 

These extracts show the general condition of the "remnant of the 
Six Nations" in j^ew York, and it is not very different from their condi- 
tion in other parts of the United States and in Canada. Everywhere 
they appear to be increasing in numbers as they advance in civilization. 

Tlw Sioux. 

These Indians have, during the last fifteen years, engaged a large 
share of the public attention, especially as they have displayed their 
military strength in hostilities against the whites. The study of the 
question of their numbers at different periods has not yet developed 
facts that warrant the presentation even of estimates, at this time, and 
they are therefore reserved for the present. Information has been 
sought in different directions, and considerable has been collected. 

Several months ago, after the facts respecting the natural causes of 
increase and decrease of Indian population had accumulated to such an 



3G 

extent as to force a more definite inquiry on the subject, letters in the 
form given below were addressed (August 8) to several gentleoien who, 
from long personal association with and study of the Sioux tribes, are 
peculiarly qualified to give information respecting them : 

One of the series of centennial reports on education will have for its 
subject Indian civilization and education. 

One phase of the subject.requires further investigation, and I address 
you, hoi)iug that you will be able to contribute some facts bearing on it. 
There is a pretty general opinion that the Indians are a vanishing race, 
doomed to disappear at a not distant period. Many facts, however, 
have been developed which indicate that this opinion is not correct, and 
that the Indians generally are not decreasing in numbers, but, instead, 
are increasing in proportion as they yield to civilizing influences. The 
popular opinion now held is no doubt responsible for the apathy with 
which eflorts in behalf of the Indians are regarded, and it is important 
that the theory should be brought to the test of facts and experience. 

Your long acquaintance with the {Sioux has no doubt enabled you to 
form an accurate opinion regarding their increase or decrease and the 
causes which have governed the fluctuations of population in that tribe. 
I shall be greatly obliged if you will favor me briefly with a statement 
of the results of your observations in these particulars. 

Two of the replies received are g iven below. The first is from Eev. 
Dr. Eiggs, the eminent and well-known Indian scholar and missionary-. 
The other is from Mr. John P. Williamson, whose life from childhood 
has been passed among the Sioux, and who has been for many years a 
missionary and teacher, and is now United States special Indian agent 
at the Flandreau agency, Dakota. Two men cannot be found who are 
more competent to describe the past and present condition and forecast 
the probable future of these Indians than Dr. Eiggs and Mr. William- 
son. 

The substantial agreement between their estimates and conclusions, 
which were communicated independently and without conference with 
each other, will be noted. 

LETTER ¥llOM iUiV. DE. EIGGS. 

Missouri River, Peoeia Bottom, 

August 27, 1877. 

Mv Dear Sir: Your commuuication of the 8tli instant has b eu forwarded to me 
fram Bcloit. 

Tlie question of increase and decrease of Indian populations is one in wliicli we have 
been considerably interested. At various times in tlie progress of our mission work, 
we have kept life tables for a single Dakota village, and always, I believe, with, the 
resnlt that the births somewhat exceeded the deaths. Forty years ago the Dakota or 
Sioux nation was counted variously from twenty-five to thirty thousand souls. Now, 
it is known to number at least ten thousand more. But while it would not be fair to 
infer fr )m this that the tribe had increased that much, it is certainly reasonable to 
conclude that during this time they have not diminished, but rather increased. 

And yet it accords with my observation, that for a certain period after the process 
of civilization has well commenced in an Indian community, we are quite likely to find 
their number diminishing. The Sioux, as a people, are scrofulous and syphilitic — 
many families exceedingly so. Any changes in their manner of life which develop 



37 



these physical teiuleucies will ueoessarily iucrease the death rate. The free use of 
flour aud pork by a people who have heretofore lived ou wild meat and roots and ber- 
ries, or even if they have added the little patch of corn, will certainly develop scrof- 
ula. The same is true of living in a close, badly-ventilated cabin, supplied with a 
cooking-stove. Thus the first steps towards civilization naturally, almost necessarily, 
increase disease and death. So comniDu is this that Ave have been led to note, in re- 
gard to many Dakota families, that they raise almost no children — some none at all. 
And iu carrying on boarding-schools among them it often happens that a scholar must 
be sent home to the wild (i. e. outdoor) life, if the health is to be restored. 

O n the other hand, when this crucial period is once passed, the gospel of cleanliness 
becomes in a large sense the gospel of physical salvation. Then families aud commu- 
nities commence to increase again in numbers. Some portions of the Sioux people are 
now passing through this stage of decline ; some families, we think, are beginning to 
recuperate; while the larger part of the tribe are yet wild and not apparently 
affected by the process of civilization. 

The published statistics of the Indians in the State of New York show a very large 
increase in the last quarter of a century. They have reached the stage of recovery. 

As jour letter seems to suggest, there is another way of aj>parent diminution of In- 
dians who are passing into the conditions of civilization. The more civilized and 
Christianized portions of our Dakota people are now coming more and more into con- 
tact with the better class of white people. Many families and individuals are becom- 
ing detached from their own people and merged with the whites. Some of them are 
mixed bloods, and all such come to be counted as half breeds. Many such families are 
now scattered through the State of Minnesota. Other Sioux have gone off and formed 
colonies of homesteaders, as the colonies of Big Sioux aud Brown Earth. They are in 
the process of mixture and merging. This is not miscegenation, but a proper and de- 
sirable mixture of the races, the inferior being elevated and finally absorbed and lost 
in the superior. 

No, sir ; I do not think the facts which are before us at all justify the belief that the 
Indians are necessarily a vanishing race except as Indians. We do not care to raise any 
more Indians, but to raise Indians up to take their proper place among w^hite men, 
civilized, Christianized. The facts abundantly prove them capable of becoming such. 
And if this is not their history in the half cent ury coming, the fault will be largely 
ours. We have no right to assume that they are a race given over of God to destruc- 
tion, and we have less right to doom them oarselves. 
Yours, very truly, 

S. R. RIGGS, 

Missionary. 

General John Eaton, 

Commissioner of Education. 

LE'lTER FROM MR. AVILLIAMSON. 

Greenwood, Dak., September 3, 1877. 
Dear Sir : Your letter of August 8 is received. * * * My observation of the 
Sioux Indians since my childhood, forty years ago, leads me to think that the vision of 
the last Indian jumping into eternity toward the setting sun is a poet's dream of the 
distant futnre. 

Forty years ago the Sioux were supposed to number 25,000, which was probably an 
overestimate, as it was based on the number of lodges, the rule being to count ten 
persons to a lodge, which I think very seldom the case. Now, the Sioax are estimated 
at 50,000, though 40,000 would probably be a better count, and as near the truth as 
25,000 was forty years ago; which would show an increase of 60 per cent, in forty 
years. This increase, however, is with a tribe that has yielded but little to civiliza- 
tion. 

In changing from a savage to civilized life there is always a great check to the growth 
of any people. I look upon the Indians in their several stages about thus : 



38 



1. In tlieir wild state they increase quite rapidly, unless disturbed by some violent 
agent, as war, famine, pestilence. The wildest portion of the Sioux tribe has been tlie 
Titonwan, including the Sicangu, Itazipcho, Sihasapa, Minneconjou, Oohenopa* 
Oglala, and Hunkpapa bands. These have had the least intercourse with the whites, 
and have not planted, but have suffered comparatively little from famine, living 
in the best buffalo country in America. And they have increased the most rapidly. 
They have probably more than doubled in forty years, now numbering about 25,000 ; 
though Sitting Bull allows no census takers in his camp. My observation, as well as 
the testimony of the Indians, is that they are much more healthy when they roam at 
large and live on wild meat, than when they are confined for a long time in one place 
and fed on white man's food. 

2. The first efi^ect of a change to civilized life is no doubt to diminish their Jiumbers 
Intercourse with whites brings in new diseases that are very fatal, especially those 
connected with licentious habits. Enriched diet and confined habits increase the 
fatality of all their disease?. The introduction of strong drink sweeps off many more. 
The very change produces a dissatisfied state of mind, which is unfavorable to fecundity 
or long life. 

3. These causes, however, do not at all necessarily lead to their extinction. The 
transplanting of a tree will certainly retard its growth for a time, but, if it be placed 
in a better soil, it may in the end more than regain itself. So with the Indians. Were 
all deleterious influences cut off, and the spirit of a new life infused into them, I have 
no doubt they would not only recover from the change, but grow more rapidly than 
in their former state. 

The change among the Sioux is not of sufficient standing, or has not been made under 
such circumstances as to furnish much evidence. The Santee, or Minnesota Sioux, who 
have been under civilizing influences the longest, were so broken up and scattered by 
the massacre of 1862 that we can only get data at the points were they have been sfnce 
that time. As near as I can estimate they have decreased a little in the last fifteen 
years. They may — I expect them to — decrease a little for the next fifteen years, per- 
haps for a longer time ; then I expect them to take root and begin to increase. Per- 
haps the most civilized band of the Sioux is theFlandreau Sioux, who are citizens, and 
number about 350. For the last four years I have kept an account of the births and 
deaths, which I think quite accurate, and in that time there have been fourteen more 
deaths tha n births, though the last two years the births have exceeded the deaths. 
Yours, very truly, 

JOHN P. WILLIAMSON, 

Missionary of the Presbyterian Church. 

General John Eaton, 

Commissioner of Education. 

VITAL STATISTICS. 

From time to time the births aud deaths in a given period have been 
recorded by individual observers who enjoyed opportunities for studying 
different tribes or bands; but these observations have been so limited 
as to time and the numbers of the people studied, and have been alto- 
gether so fragmentar y that they aiford no basis whatever for general 
conclusions. While our official Indian statistics have been improving 
from year to year, especially since 1861, they are still very imperfect in 
many respects; in none more so than in that relating to the actual in- 
crease by births and decrease by deaths. 

In 1874 the first attempt was made to present such statistics in the 
publishisd reports of the Indi an Office. Similar statistics were included 
in the reports of that office for 1875 and 1876. 



39 



Though very incomplete, and in some cases perhaps inaccurate, these 
statistics actually comprise the only known data on which anything like 
a correct opinion regarding those fluctuations of Indian population 
which depend on births and deaths can be based. It is greatly to be 
regretted that they are so imperfect; that they do not cover a longer 
period, and that they do not include those tribes in the Indian Territory 
which are farthest advanced toward civilization. 

The following figures are given from the reports of the Indian Office 
for the years 1874, 1875, and 1876: 1874, births, 2,152 j deaths, 1,490; 
excess of births over deaths, 662. 1875, births, 1,985 ; deaths, 1,601; 
excess of births over deaths, 384. 1876, births, 2,401 ; deaths, 2,215; 
excess of births over deaths, 186. 

The number of deaths by violence is reported for the years 1874 and 
1875 as follows : 

1874. 1675. 



Killed by members of the same tribe 162 30 

Killed by liostile Indians 52 27 

Killed by United States soldiers 122 30 

Killed by citizens ^ 55 23 

Total 391 110 



It is not clear whether all these deaths by violence were included in 
the first statement above or not. 

According to the same reports, the numbers of Indians that received 
medical treatment were as follows : (1874) 27,553 ; (1875) 46,594; (1876) 
37,232. 

Any attempt to deduce ratios from the preceding figures would have 
yielded obviously false results, because the tribes reporting births and 
deaths from year to year, vary ; and besides, while some are reported 
each year, others are reported but once, and many not once, in the whole 
period. 

The reports of the Indian Office for the three years were therefore 
carefully collated, and it was found that the reports from a number of 
the agencies afforded information respecting the number of births or 
deaths, or both, during each of the three years. The reported popula- 
tion on which the following statistics for 1874 are based was 113,424; 
for 1875 it Tras 129,789 ; and for 1876 it was 105,419. It is to be under- 
stood, however, that the births or deaths in the whole number for any 
year are not given. For example, in 1874 the number of births was re- 
ported from agencies comprising 48,009 of the 113,424 ; and the number 
of deaths was reported for 63,772 of the 113,424. 

The statistics from which the following figures are derived are drawn 
from the reports of 57 agencies for 1874 ; 59 agencies for 1875 ; and 58 
agencies in 187 6. They represent members of nearly one hundred tribes 
and parts of tribes in Arizona, Oali fornia, Colorado, Dakota, Idaho, Indian 
Territory, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Iowa, Nebraska, New Mexico, 
New York, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington Territory, Wisconsin, and 
Wyoming; included are some tribes like the Iroquois in New York, 



40 



well advanced to\A^ard civilization and surrounded by white settlements, 
while others are still in a state of barbarism, secluded on reservations 
remote from white settlements ; in brief, they represent all the condi- 
tions and circumstances that characterize the different Indian tribes of 
the United States. 

With these explanations, the following figures are given : 

1S74. Births in 48, 009, 1, 495 ; deaths in 63, 772, 1, 047. 

1875. Births in 74, 417, 1, 905 ; deaths in 99, 309, 1, 566. 

1876. Births in 81, 734, 2, 383 ; deaths in 90, 590, 2, 195. 



1874. Increase by births 44. 82 in 1,000 

Decrease by deaths 23. 28 in 1, 000 

Excess of births over deaths 21. 54 in 1, 000 

1875. Increase by births 25. 59 in 1, 000 

Decrease by deaths 15. 76 in 1, 000 

Excess of births over deaths 9. 83 in 1 , 000 

1876. Increase by births 29. 19 in 1, 000 

Decrease by deaths 23. 12 in 1, 000 

Excess of births over deaths 6. 07 in 1, 000 



These numbers and ratios are not giv^en for the purpose of drawing 
from them any general conclusions respecting the natural tendency of 
Indian population either to increase or decrease , for they are based on 
data much too imperfect and covering altogether too brief a period, to 
give them any value for that. But they are presented to indicate the 
state of our actual knowledge on the subject, and in the hope that simply 
showing how meagre the stock of information is, may result in efficient 
measures being taken for its increase. 

The subject may be dismissed here with the remark that whatever 
positive evidence the figures afford is not in favor of the theory of a 
rapid decrease of the Indian population from natural causes. 

SANITARY CONDITION OF THE INDIANS. 

The value of the above statistics would have been greatly enhanced 
had they been made to show the proportion of deaths from each disease 
that contributed to the mortality. In the absence of such information 
recourse was had to the published reports of the several agents, a care- 
ful examination of which reveals much of interest on the subject. 
Within the period mentioned (1874-76) fifty-six agents have reported 
the sanitary condition of the Indians under their charge, and a number 
have stated the prevailing diseases among them. These reports came 
from all the Territories except Alaska and Wyoming, and from the States 
of California, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, ITebraska, Nevada, and Oregon, 
and may, therefore, be assumed to represent fairly the average sanitary 
condition of all the Indians in the United States except the civilized 
tribes in New York and the Indian Territory, from which no reports on 
these points were received. 

In 1874, of 17 agents, 9 reported the sanitary condition of the Indians 
under their charge good 1, " good until the last month 1, "ex- 



41 



cellent 1 as "fair ; " 2 as " greatly improved 2 as " improving ; " and 

1 as " not as good as usual." 

lu 1875, of 43 agents, 28 reported the health of the Indians as " good ; " 
4 as, " fair j " 3 as " improved ; " and 8 as not good." 
In 1876, of 24 agents, 17 reported the health of the Indians as " good ; " 

2 as " fair ; " 1 as " excellent ; " 1 as " improved j " 1 as " not as good as 
usual;" and 2 as "not good.^' 

From one agency in Arizona, one in California, and one in Nevada, 
reports were received each year; two showed uniform good health, and 
one indicated improvement. 

From 29 agents reports of prevailing diseases were received for one 
or more years. The list includes pulmonary diseases, resulting from 
exposure, reported 8 times ; malarial fevers, reported 7 times ; scrofula 
and venereal diseases, reported 13 times ; rheumatism, caused by expo- 
sure, reported 6 times; measles (among children) reported 4 times; 
alcoholic poison reported once. Small-pox, formerly so dreaded, and so 
frequent among the Indians, was not reported among the diseases, 
showing that the measures of the Indian OfQce for their vaccination 
have been efficient. It has, however, prevailed among the Pueblo In- 
dians of New Mexico during the last few months. 

Two agents remark that the improved sanitary condition of the 
Indians under their charge is due to the employment of a regular phy- 
sician and the fact that the Indians have generally discarded their 
"medicine men" or native doctors ; two others that the improvement is 
due to the disuse of spirituous liquors by the Indians ; and another 
ascribes it to the removal of the troops from the vicinity of the Indians. 

Space may be afforded to present one or two brief extracts from the 
reports. 

Dr. South worth, physician at tbe Fort Berthold agency, Dakota, re- 
marks in his report for 1875 : 

By reference to the monthly sanitary reports it will be seen that the 
number of cases treated is steadily decreasing, and compares very favor- 
ably with the same periods of last year, and is due to the absence of any 
epidemic visitations of disease, the better advantages the Indians enjoy, 
and the better food, clothing, and climate afforded them the last season. 
The proportion of venereal disease is very slight, and would be less if 
more stringent measures could be adopted to prevent their intercourse 
with the military and straggling whites. Consumption, and, above all, 
scrofula and rheumatism, still find some victims, but the vastly improved 
methods for providing fuel and conveying the products of their agricult- 
ural labor, give promise of great sanitary benefits. 

The last sentence of the above extract will have full weight with every 
one who has seen the immense burdens piled on the backs of Indian 
women in a savage state. 

Agent Sinnott, of the Grand Eonde agency, Oregon, in his fourth 
annual report, dated 1875, remarks: 

The sanitary condition of the Indians is much improved over former 
years. The number of births for the past year is in excess of the deaths ; 
4 E 



42 



most of the deaths having resulted from, chronic diseases, contracted 
previously to their present improved habits ai^d regularity of living. 

Dr. Bateman, physician at the Round Valley agency, California, 
remarks in his report for 1875 : 

In coming here, i^ovember, 1873, 1 found very many sick. Death was 
abroad in all the camps to an alarming extent. Constitutional disease 
everywhere prevailed and had well nigh tainted the whole mass 5 births^ 
were infrequent, and the enfeebled children, many of them, were short-: 
lived, not able to survive the teething period. * * * For the eight! 
months ending June 30, 1874, there were 46 deaths and 29 births. For 
the year ending June 30, 1875, 44 were born and 39 died. The encour- 
aging rate of improvement here shown, which is especially marked in 
the various forms and complications of venereal disease, hitherto so 1 
universally prevalent, is mainly due to the great moral, social, and! 
religious reforms wrought among them. As a body, they evince fidelity 
to their Christian and marital obligations, convinced that moral audi 
physical reformation and renovation are the essential and only means of ' 
self-preservation. 

Numerous other extracts of a similar character might be presented 
did space permit. Those given, however, fairly represent the general 
tenor of all. 

CONCLUSION. 

It was intended to present here some facts bearing on the causes of 
increase or decrease of Indian populations as affecting them in a state 
of savagery or barbarism, and as they yield to civilizing iniiuences, but 
the limits of these notes do not allow. They will appear hereafter. 

It is to be understood that the statements and facts presented are not 
brought forward to attack or defend any theory whatever ; nor are they 
submitted as by any means conclusive evidence on the subject to which 
they relate. But it is hoped that, by bringing them to the notice of 
competent observers, enough other facts may be obtained to warrant a 
general conclusion respecting the influence of civilization upon the In- 
dian population. 

It may not be impertinent for the writer to observe that the above 
and a multitude of other facts that have come to his knowledge during 
several years of study of the question of Indian civilization have con- 
• vinced him that the usual theory that the Indian population is destined 
to decline and finally disappear, as a result of contact with white civ- 
ilization, must be greatly modified, probably abandoned altogether. 

S. N. CLARK. 

Bureau of Education, 

November 24, 1877. 

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